înaintea

Forms

înaintea (+genitive)^[1] Old texts also have naintea: „Se-au mărturisit Lungul naintea judecăției” “Lungul declared before the court” (a document of 1591).^[2] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 spells it înnaintea: „au adus boierii darurile lor înnaintea lui” “the nobles brought their gifts before him”.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian înainte + -a, the adverb made a preposition that takes the genitive.^[1][3][4] MDA2 treats it as a form of înainte.^[5] The adverb comes from în and old ainte, from Late Latin ab ante.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Coresi's Psalter of 1570, in the sense “before, in front of”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Tiktin's material shows the spatial sense first: “in front of, in the presence of”, as before a court in a document of 1591.^[2] With verbs of motion it means “towards, to meet”: a ieși înaintea cuiva “to go out to meet someone”.^[2] The temporal sense “before, earlier than” is used of events, as in „Cu o zi înaintea divanului” “a day before the council”;^[2] Tiktin notes that this use was once only occasional.^[2] It was a word of the church books: the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has it more than 1,700 times.^[8]

Timeline

• 1570 – înaintea in Coresi's Psalter.^[7]
• 1591 – naintea judecăției “before the court” in a document.^[2]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1688 – more than 1,700 times in the Bucharest Bible.^[8]

Meanings

Preposition

1. (with the genitive) in front of; in the presence of: înaintea casei “in front of the house”.^[3][10][1]
2. (with the genitive) before, earlier than: înaintea plecării “before the departure”.^[3][10][1]
3. (with verbs of motion) Towards, to meet someone.^[2]

Related words

• înainte
• dinainte
• înainta

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. înainte
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 536
4. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
5. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1199
6. ^ 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. înainte
7. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 5:4
8. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 6:8
9. ^ 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. înaintea
10. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. înaintea