vers

Forms

vers n (plural versuri)^[1] Old texts have verș and virș: „Cela ce va scrie virșuri sau va scoate cântece pentru ocara cuiva” “he who writes verses or makes up songs to mock someone” (Îndreptarea legii); Dosoftei writes of „verșuri iamvicești” “iambic verses”.^[2][3] Besides the plural versuri there is a rare verse: „atât în verse, cât și în proză” “both in verse and in prose”.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin versus (“line, verse”), with French vers and Italian verso as further models, as MDA2 and the DLR give it;^[5][4][6][1] DEX names French and Latin, and Wiktionary all three.^[5][4][6][1] Gabinschi classes it as a learned Latin–Romance loan.^[3] For the older records Tiktin speaks of an indirect Latin source and compares Hungarian vers and Polish wiersz, and Tamás takes the word from Hungarian, with Polish as a possible source in Moldavia.^[2][7]

The Latin noun is formed on vertō (“to turn”) with -tus.^[1][8] It first meant a turn, the turning of the plough at the end of a furrow, then a line of writing and a verse;^[8] Graur explains that the writer turned back to the margin before completing the next line.^[9][8] The same Latin word gave the inherited doublet viers “melody, song”.^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Vasile Lupu's Pravila of 1646.^[2] The 17th-century texts use the forms verș and virș, which Tiktin lists as old variants.^[2] MDA2 and the DLR date their first record to 1777, the title of a poem in Gaster's chrestomathy: „Stihuri în versuri, pentru Grigore Ghica Vodă”.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

In the late 18th century the grammarians used the word for metrical lines: Văcărescu's grammar teaches how to make skilled verses, and Micu contrasts history with what is told in verse.^[4] In the 19th century it became the term of prosody, with Heliade's remark that modern verse is measured by syllables, and the old word stih gave way to it.^[4][11] The plural took on the sense “poetry, poems”, and the phrases versuri albe and versuri libere name blank and free verse.^[6][12] MDA2 also records a rare use for a verse of Scripture.^[5]

Timeline

• 1646 – in Vasile Lupu's Pravila, the first record.^[2]
• 1777 – versuri in the title of a poem for Grigore Ghica.^[5][4]
• 1870 – Costinescu defines it as measured and cadenced words.^[13]
• 1875 – Antonescu glosses versu with French vers.^[14]
• 1886 – Barcianu gives German Vers, Reim.^[15]
• 1955-1957 – the DLRLC records versuri albe and versuri libere.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A verse: the basic unit of prosody, one or more words arranged by a scheme of syllable length, stress or syllable count; a line of a poem: ultimul vers al strofei.^[6][5][1]
2. (in the plural) poetry, poems; a volume of poems: un volum de versuri.^[6][5]
3. (singular) Versification.^[5]
4. (rare) A verse of Scripture, a verset.^[5]

Word family

• versurel

Related words

• viers
• verset
• versifica
• Latin versus

Usage notes

The dictionaries also list vers as a spelling of viers “melody, voice”.^[2][12][11] Tamás records a regional vers “recruiting dance”, which goes with Hungarian verbunk.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. vers
3. ^ a b Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 180
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vers
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1462
6. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1194
7. ^ a b Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 847
8. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1401
12. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 647
13. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 691
14. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 330
15. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 686