vopsea

Forms

vopsea f (plural vopsele)^[1] The older and popular forms are văpsea and văpseală; the Romanian Herodotus of 1645 says of a city's walls that they „sînt zugrăvite cu văpsăli” “are painted with colours”.^[2][3] Besides the plural vopsele, DEX gives vopseluri;^[3][4] MDA2 records vopseli as popular and many regional variants (vapsa, văcsea, vocsea, vopsă).^[3][4]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Romanian vopseală (“paint, dye”): its plural was taken as the plural of a singular ending in ⟨-ea⟩, on the model of boia and its plural.^[5][4] That noun is formed from Romanian vopsi + -eală.^[3][2][1]

The verb vopsi “to paint, to dye” comes from Bulgarian вапсам (vapsam) according to DEX and Wiktionary, which also names Old Church Slavonic вапьсати (vapĭsati).^[3][1] MDA2 names besides Bulgarian the Greek aorist Modern Greek ἔβαψα (évapsa) of βάπτω (váptō, “to dip, dye”), and Tiktin the Byzantine Greek verb.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to Varlaam's Cazania of 1643.^[4] Tiktin's first record is the Romanian Herodotus of 1645, where the walls of a city are painted in colours.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The word first named an artificial colouring matter, for which Moldavia also used boia, and then natural colour as well.^[5] 18th-century trade letters list văpsală and văpsa among goods by the pound and by the case.^[2] In the older language it also meant a colour or shade, and figuratively the manner in which something is told: an old text says that others have described events „cu mai frumoase văpsele” “in finer colours”.^[3][8]

The familiar phrase a ieși la vopsea “to come off, to manage” is old: Pann's proverb „El într-un fel o ursea Ș-altfel ieși la vopsea” says that a thing turned out differently from what was planned.^[5][4] In old Bucharest the town districts were marked by colours and were themselves called văpsele: văpseaua de roșu, de galben “the red, the yellow district”.^[5][4]

Timeline

• 1643 – in Varlaam's Cazania, the first record.^[4]
• 1645 – văpsăli “colours” in the Romanian Herodotus.^[5][2]
• 1747 – văpsală sold by weight, in a trade document.^[2]
• 1786 – văpsa in a merchant's letter.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. paint, dye: a colouring matter made by suspending a pigment in a liquid, used to colour or coat objects.^[3][1]
2. Colour used in painting.^[3][4]
3. (dated) The colour or shade of an object.^[3]
4. (dated, now familiar and pejorative) Make-up, fard.^[4]
5. (historical) A district of Bucharest, named after the colour of its house plates.^[4][5]

Related words

• vopsi
• vopseală
• boia

Usage notes

A ieși (bine) la vopsea means “to manage, to bring something off”, and a nu ieși la vopsea “to fail”.^[4][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. vopsea
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 1206
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1510
5. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. vopsea
6. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1511
7. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. vopsi
8. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 698