vorbă

Forms

vorbă f (plural vorbe)^[1] The old language, and Moldavia and Transylvania until later, used voroavă (plural voroave): „Ș-au încheiat voroava cu următoarele stihuri” “she ended her speech with the following verses” (Barac).^[2] Neculce writes horbă.^[2][3] MDA2 also lists the variants voarbă, voarvă and vorvă.^[4]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[3][4] The explanation most sources favour is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic дворьба (dvorĭba, “service, attendance at court”), from Proto-Slavic *dvorъ (“court”), an explanation of Weigand's accepted by Tiktin, Candrea and Densusianu.^[2][3][5][1] The meaning would have gone from “gathering at court” to “talk”, as in cuvânt from Latin conventus (“assembly”), and for the loss of the initial ⟨d⟩ Tiktin compares vornic and its Slavonic source.^[3][2] MDA2 calls the word of unknown origin and compares only the Slavonic дворьва (dvorĭva), and DEX also compares the Slavonic word.^[4][6]

Ciorănescu notes two difficulties: the old dvorbă meant “service at court” and is never confused with this word, and the old variant voroavă remains unexplained.^[3] Tiktin also leaves the variant unexplained, finding the Slavonic words for “noise” and “to speak” with ⟨govor-⟩ too far apart in sound.^[2] MDA2 derives it from the verb vorovi and compares Slavonic воровъ (vorovŭ, “noise”).^[7] A derivation from Latin verbum (“word”), proposed by Cipariu and Șăineanu, is unlikely according to Ciorănescu, while Herescu argued for a popular blending of the Latin and the Slavonic words.^[3] Wiktionary sets out both the Latin and the Slavonic explanation.^[1]

The verb vorbi has the cognates Aromanian vãrghescu and Megleno-Romanian vrighies south of the Danube.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to the 16th century, from the Codicele Voronețean, where the old form voroavă means “stir, commotion”: „Fu în vreamea acea voroavă nu puțină de cale” “there arose at that time no small stir about the Way” (Acts 19:23).^[2] He also records a place name Vorovești from about 1456.^[2] The form vorbă is first found in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649, where it glosses Slavonic бесѣда “conversation”, and MDA2's first record is the Romanian text of Neagoe Basarab's teachings, before 1654.^[8][4]

Semantic evolution

In 16th-century religious texts voroavă meant unrest, murmuring and quarrel, a sense Tiktin explains by Church Slavonic molva, which properly means “talk”.^[2][7] Dosoftei used horbă for “assembly”, while Neculce already used it for “word”.^[3] Wiktionary keeps “gathering” as an obsolete sense.^[1]

From “talk, conversation” the word took on most of the senses of speech: a single word, a saying or proverb, a piece of advice, a promise, an agreement and a rumour.^[6][3] It is used throughout the Romanian-speaking area.^[3] Many phrases are built on it, such as a sta de vorbă “to chat”, a ține de vorbă “to keep someone talking” and nici vorbă “out of the question”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1456 – the place name Vorovești.^[2]
• c. 1563–1583 – voroavă “stir, commotion” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[2]
• 1649 – vorbă in Mardarie's lexicon, glossing Slavonic “conversation”.^[8]
• before 1654 – in the Romanian text of Neagoe Basarab's teachings.^[4]
• 1682 – the verb vorbi, in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[9]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses it with Latin verbum and sermo.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A word.^[6]
2. Something said; an utterance, an idea put into words: vorbe de clacă “idle talk”, auzi vorbă! “did you ever!”.^[6]
3. An account, a telling of something.^[6]
4. Talk, conversation, discussion, chat: din vorbă în vorbă “one thing leading to another”;^[6][1] e vorba de… “it is a matter of…”.^[6][1]
5. A way of speaking: Are o vorbă domoală.^[6]
6. A saying, a proverb: Vorba dulce mult aduce.^[6]
7. Advice, exhortation.^[6]
8. A promise, a commitment: Și-a ținut vorba.^[6][3]
9. An agreement, an arrangement; bargaining.^[6]
10. A rumour, news.^[6]
11. Speech, language: Se vedea după vorbă că nu e de-aici.^[6][11]
12. (obsolete) A gathering.^[1]

Word family

• vorbărie
• vorbi
• convorbi
• vorbăreț
• vorbitor

Related words

• voroavă
• vornic

Usage notes

DEX writes the plural vorbe; the singular is often used with a plural sense.^[12] Tiktin records the diminutive vorbuliță.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. vorbă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. vorbă
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1511
5. ^ Miklosich, Franz (1862–1865), Lexicon palaeoslovenico-graeco-latinum emendatum auctum, Vindobonae: Braumüller, p. s.v. дворьба
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1206
7. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1514
8. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. vorbă
9. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. s.v. vorbi
10. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 477
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1420
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 698