ăsta

Forms

ăsta m, asta f; plural ăștia m, astea f; genitive–dative ăstuia, ăsteia, plural ăstora.^[2] Regional forms include aista (Moldavia, northern Transylvania), aiesta (Maramureș, Crișana), ista (Moldavia) and hăsta (Banat).^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian ăst + -a: the demonstrative adjective “this” with the deictic ending that also ends acesta and acela.^[3][1] DELR starts from the older form aiest, and takes the ending from Latin hāc (“here, by this way”) or from the model of the demonstratives of distance.^[3]

The adjective continues istum and ista, forms of iste (“that (near you)”), the demonstrative of the second person.^[3][4][5] DEX derives the pronoun directly from the same Latin forms.^[2] Ciorănescu starts from a Vulgar Latin *istus and compares Italian esto, kept in stasera and stamane, Old French ist, Spanish este and Portuguese este.^[4] The regular outcome would have been ⟨*iest⟩, ⟨*iastă⟩.^[3] DELR, following Giurgea, explains the Romanian forms by an added ⟨a-⟩ on the model of acest and acel, so that the older form became ⟨aest⟩, ⟨aăst⟩ and finally ⟨ăst⟩.^[3] Older accounts derive the short forms from the Latin pronoun directly, through sentence phonetics or unstressed use, which DELR finds unsatisfactory.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The pronoun is first recorded in 1587, in the feminine form aiasta, in a document; the form ăsta itself appears in Ienăchiță Văcărescu's grammar of 1787.^[3] The adjective ăst is older: astă noapte “last night” is in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel of 1551–1553.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Ciorănescu notes that ăst and acest mean the same, acest being more formal and ăst more familiar, just as ăl stands beside acel.^[4] The ending -a is added in pronominal use and when the demonstrative follows its noun.^[4] DEX labels ăsta popular and colloquial.^[2] It can carry contempt or humour: ăștia “these people”.^[6] The feminine asta also means “this (thing)” in many phrases: asta e “that's how it is”, asta-i bună! “that's a good one!”.^[4]

Compounds with the feminine form name times: astăzi “today”, astă-seară “this evening”, astă-iarnă “last winter”.^[4]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – astă noapte “last night”, the first record of the adjective.^[3]
• 1587 – the feminine pronoun aiasta in a document.^[3]
• 1588 – estimp “this year”, from istum tempus or a Romanian compound.^[3]
• 1787 – the form ăsta in Văcărescu's grammar.^[3]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (colloquial) This one, this: Ăsta e fratele meu. “This is my brother.”^[2][6][1]
2. (colloquial, sometimes derogatory) Of people: ăștia “these people”.^[6][1]
3. The feminine asta with a neuter sense: this (thing): pentru asta “for that reason”, cu toate astea “nevertheless”.^[2]

Determiner

1. (colloquial; after its noun) This: omul ăsta “this man”.^[2][1]

Related words

• acesta
• ăla
• Latin iste

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 83
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. ăst
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. ăst
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4553
6. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 181