Dumnezeu

Forms

Dumnezeu m (genitive and dative lui Dumnezeu)^[1] The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century writes Dumnedzeu: „toate limbile cari vor uita Dumnedzeu” “all the nations that forget God”.^[2] Older texts also have Domnezeu, Dumnăzeu and Dumnezău, and Transylvania has Dumnezo.^[3][4] The rare plural dumnezei is written lowercase: „Să nu fie ție alți dumnezei afară den mine” “thou shalt have no other gods besides me” (Exodus 20:3, 1688).^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin domine deus (“O Lord God”), the vocative of dominus (“lord, master”) and deus (“god”), an invocation of Christian Latin.^{[3][7][4][1][8]} The REW notes that the word belongs to Christian terminology, which explains why its first part developed differently from the ordinary word for “lord”.^[8] DELR adds that both members of the phrase were inherited in Romanian, the second also on its own as zău or zeu.^[3]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian Dumnidzã and Megleno-Romanian Dumnizǫ́.^[3][7][9] The same vocative phrase gave Italian domineddio, Old French damedeu and Occitan domnideu.^[7][8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500), where it is written Dumnedzeu.^[3][10] MDA2 gives the same source.^[4] Tiktin's first example is from the Codicele Voronețean.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the first texts the word names the one God of Christianity, and it keeps the status of a proper name.^[3][2] The old language also used it in the plural for pagan gods, as in the Bucharest Bible of 1688;^[5][3][4] DELR and MDA2 record the senses “god” and “idol”.^[5][3][4]

Most of its modern phrases have little religious content: bătut de Dumnezeu “ill-fated”, cum dă Dumnezeu “as luck will have it, haphazardly”, and exclamations such as Dumnezeule! and pentru Dumnezeu!^[11][4] Folk names of animals and plants contain it: boul lui Dumnezeu “ladybird”, pita lui Dumnezeu “chanterelle” and brâul lui Dumnezeu “rainbow”.^[5] Recent colloquial speech uses până la Dumnezeu for “extremely”.^[12]

Romanian derived a large family from it: the adjective dumnezeiesc “divine” is as old as the noun, dumnezeire “divinity” appears in the 1570s and îndumnezei “to deify” in 1581.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – Dumnedzeu and the adjective dumnezeiesc in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3][10]
• 1563 – dumnezeiță “goddess” in Coresi.^[3]
• c. 1563–1583 – dumnedzeaie “goddess” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]
• 1570 – dumnezei “gods” in Coresi's Psalter.^[13]
• 1573–1578 – dumnezeire in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3]
• 1581 – dumnezeiește “divinely” and îndumnezei “to deify” in Coresi's Gospel homilies.^[3]
• 1643 – dumnezeoaie “goddess” in Varlaam's Cazania.^[3]
• 1683 – the verb dumnezei “to deify, to worship” in Dosoftei.^[3]
• 1688 – about 450 occurrences in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. God: in the monotheistic religions, the supreme being, creator and judge of the world; in Christianity, one God in three persons.^[11][4][1]
2. (written lowercase, plural dumnezei) A deity, a god.^[11][4]
3. (dated) An idol.^[4]

Word family

• dumnezei
• dumnezeiesc
• dumnezeiește
• dumnezeire
• dumnezeiță
• dumnezeoaie
• îndumnezei

Related words

• zeu
• zău
• domn
• Aromanian Dumnidzã

Usage notes

Written with a capital as a proper name, it takes the genitive and dative lui Dumnezeu.^[1][11] Many phrases use it: Doamne Dumnezeule!, pentru (numele lui) Dumnezeu! and cu Dumnezeu înainte!^[11][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dumnezeu
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. dumnezeu
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 771
5. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dumnezeu
6. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ieșirea 20:3
7. ^ 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. dumnezeu
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2734
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 420
10. ^ 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 4:6
11. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 336
12. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. dumnezeu
13. ^ 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 81:6
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 1:25