apã

Forms

apã f (plural api, definite articulation apa)^[1]

• Plural api, definite apa.^[1] Cunia gives the plural api or ape;^[2] Papahagi the plural ápe.^[3]
• Other spellings: ape in Wiktionary;^[1] ÁPĂ in Papahagi's dictionary;^[3] âpă, plural -pi, in Dalametra's^[4] and ápa in Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;^[5] apâ, plural -i, in DIARO;^[6] απᾶ in Nikolaidis's Greek script, transcribed ápă, plural api and ape.^[7]
• Regional forms: ápă, plural ápe, in the dialect of Metsovo;^[8] apā in the village of Turia;^[9] ápă in the dialect atlas.^[10]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin aqua (“water”).^{[3][11][1][12][13]} The labiovelar consonant became p here, as in the Aromanian numeral for "four" from quattuor.^[7] De Vaan traces aqua to Proto-Italic *akwā- (“water”), with a Germanic cognate in Proto-Germanic *ahwō (“water, stream”); he adds, after Beekes, that the other proposed cognates are very uncertain and that the word shared by Germanic and Italic may be a loan from a non-Indo-European language.^[14] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *h₂ékʷeh₂, originally perhaps "running water".^[1]

The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian apă, Megleno-Romanian apă or apu, and Istro-Romanian ape.^[15][12] Further west it gave Italian acqua, French eau and Spanish agua.^[16][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pascu lists Boiagi's grammar of 1813 among his sources for the word, in the senses "water; stream, river".^[11]

Semantic evolution

Besides water, the word means a river or a stream,^[3][11] and Mihăileanu also records "sea": vinimŭ pită apă "we came by sea".^[5] As a euphemism it means urine (s' façe apa "he urinates"),^[5][3] and the dialect atlas has "diarrhoea".^[10] Papahagi lists figurative senses: pure, chaste; a person's manner or habits; to know something perfectly; to act in vain.^[3] Dalametra records apă acră "mineral water", apă crehtă "fresh cold water" and apă nigrită, water drawn in silence for a spell.^[4]

Timeline

• 1813 – the word in Boiagi's grammar, as cited by Pascu.^[11]
• 1901 – ápa “water, river, sea; urine” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.^[5]
• 1906 – âpă “water” in Dalametra's dictionary.^[4]
• 1909 – απᾶ “water” in Nikolaidis's dictionary.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Water.^[3][17][1]
2. A river, a stream; the sea.^[3][5]
3. (euphemistic) Urine.^[3][5]
4. (dialect atlas) Diarrhoea.^[10]
5. (figurative) Pure, chaste.^[3]

Related words

• Romanian apă

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 85
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 171
4. ^ a b c Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 17
5. ^ a b c d e f Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 33
6. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 59
7. ^ a b c Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 57
8. ^ Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
9. ^ Бара, Мариана; Каль, Теде; Соболев, Андрей Н. (2005), Южноарумынский говор села Турия (Малый диалектологический атлас балканских языков, серия монографий 1), p. 410
10. ^ a b c Saramandu, Nicolae (2023), Glosar aromân, Fonetică și dialectologie XLII: 103–176, p. 110
11. ^ a b c d Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 35
12. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
13. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
16. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
17. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)