știre

Forms

știre f (plural știri)^[1]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of ști (“to know”), formed from Romanian ști + -re, and was first a verbal noun, “knowing”.^[2][3][4][1] The verb is inherited from Latin sciō (“to know”).^[2][5] DER lists Aromanian știre beside the verb știu.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and MDA2 date the first record to 1521, Neacșu's letter, where it already means “word, news”: „Dau știre domnietale” “I give your lordship word”, of what the Turks were doing.^[6][3] The sense “knowledge” is quoted from a text of 1569–1575 in Gaster's chrestomathy, „La știre voao să vă fie” “be it known to you”.^[4] Coresi's psalter of 1570 has it at Psalm 77:6.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the word mostly meant “knowledge, cognizance” and was used in set phrases: a avea știre “to know of”, cu știrea or fără știrea cuiva “with or without someone's knowledge”, and later “with or without someone's consent”.^[4][3][6] It also meant “testimony” and “proof”, both now obsolete.^[3] The sense “news, a report” is as old as the first record, and in modern Romanian it is the main one, used above all of the short reports of the press and radio.^[6][8]

Folk phrases keep the old senses: a lăsa pe cineva în știrea lui Dumnezeu “to leave someone to his fate”, în știrea cuiva “in someone's care”, and a ști de știrea cuiva “to have news of someone”.^[6][8][3] În neștire “unthinkingly, without being aware” is a phrase with the negative form.^[6] The press compound știre-bombă “bombshell news” is recorded from 1990.^[9]

Timeline

• 1521 – dau știre “I give word”, in Neacșu's letter, the first record.^[6][3]
• 1569–1575 – la știre … să vă fie “be it known”, in a text printed by Gaster.^[4]
• 1570 – in Coresi's psalter (Psalm 77:6).^[7]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• 1688 – seventeen times in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]
• 1990 – știre-bombă “bombshell news” in the sports press.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A piece of news, a short report of an event in the press, on radio or television; a novelty: știrile de la ora opt “the eight o'clock news”.^[8][1]
2. (concrete) A document, a source of information.^[8]
3. Knowledge, cognizance: cu (sau fără) știrea cuiva “with (or without) someone's knowledge”, by extension “with (or without) someone's consent”.^[8][3]
4. a da de știre: to let know, to announce.^[8]
5. a ști de știrea cuiva: to have news of someone, to know where he is and what he is doing.^[8][12]
6. în știrea cuiva: in someone's care or keeping.^[8][3]

Word family

• neștire
• știrici

Related words

• ști
• știință
• noutate
• veste
• Aromanian știre

Usage notes

MDA2 records a rare old variant ștere.^[3] In the sense “news” the word is mostly used in the plural, știri.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. ști
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1131
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. știre
5. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1128
6. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. știre
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 77:6
8. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1095
9. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE)
10. ^ 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. știre
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Esdras 4:13
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. știre