Learn Romanian › degeabă
degeabă
in vain /de.ˈdʒe̯a.ba/
adverb#2590 most common
Also: for nothing, uselessly, to no avail
Example sentences
Am cumpărat bilete degeaba.
I bought tickets for nothing.
Nu munci degeaba, nimeni nu te va plăti.
Don't work for nothing, nobody will pay you.
Am așteptat degeaba în fața ușii o oră.
I waited in vain in front of the door for an hour.
Degeaba îi explici, tot nu înțelege.
It's pointless to explain to him, he still doesn't understand.
Nu e degeaba că profesorii insistă atât de mult pe exerciții.
It's not for nothing that teachers insist so much on exercises.
Degeaba se străduiește guvernul să reducă inflația, dacă nu schimbă politica fiscală.
It's futile for the government to strive to cut inflation if it doesn't change fiscal policy.
Word family
geabacolloquial short form of degeaba
în zadarin vain (near-synonym phrase)
zadarnicfutile, vain
inutiluselessEtymology
Degeaba is built from the preposition de ("of, for") plus geaba, a word Romanian took from Ottoman Turkish caba, meaning "free, gratis, an unpaid extra." The phrase started out close to "for free," then drifted toward "for nothing" in the sense of wasted effort. This kind of Turkish loan is common in Romanian because of centuries of Ottoman contact in the region.
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