acel

Forms

acel m or n (feminine singular acea, masculine plural acei, feminine/neuter plural acele)^[1] Genitive–dative singular acelui (masculine), acelei (feminine); plural acelor.^[2] Placed after the noun, or used alone, it takes the longer form acela.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum ille, a compound of Latin eccum (“see him, here he is”) and ille (“that”).^[1][4] DELR finds this first element more likely than ecce (“behold”), which Diez, Candrea and Densusianu, the DA and DEX also allow, because it is needed for other deictic words: acolo goes back to it with illōc, and acum to it with modo.^[4][3][2] The initial ⟨a-⟩ may be a sound change within Romanian, or Latin, as in Catalan aquell and Spanish aquel, perhaps by mixing with atque (“and”);^[4] DELR finds Pușcariu's derivation from the conjunction with illum unlikely on grounds of meaning.^[4]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian atsel, Megleno-Romanian țel and Istro-Romanian țel.^[4][3][5] Its Romance cognates include Italian quello and Old French cil.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, copied about 1500–1520.^[4] That psalter has the forms acea, acei, acel and acelui.^[6] Neacșu's letter of 1521 has it before a noun: „Acel lotru de Mahamed-beg” “that robber Mehmed Beg”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Acel is the demonstrative of distance, the opposite of acest “this”: it points to a person or thing farther from the speaker in space or time.^[8][3][2] The short form stands before the noun (acel om “that man”), the longer acela after it or alone (omul acela).^[3][9] In older Romanian acel was also used as a pronoun, which DEX now lists under acela.^[4][2] It can mark something well known, with emphasis, as in Eminescu's „acel rege-al poeziei” “that king of poetry”.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – acel, acela and același in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first records.^[4]
• 1521 – acel lotru “that robber” in Neacșu's letter.^[7]
• 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean, MDA2's first record.^[10]

Meanings

Determiner

1. that (plural acei, acele “those”), before a noun: marks a being or thing farther away from the speaker in space or time: Acea casă de pe deal e a bunicilor.^[2][10][1]
2. (emphatic) that well-known, that famous.^[9]
3. (obsolete) as a pronoun, “that one”, now acela.^[4][2]

Word family

• același

Related words

• acela
• cel
• acest
• Aromanian atsel
• Latin ille

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 6
3. ^ 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. acel
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. acel
5. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 177
6. ^ 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 36:5
7. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. acél
8. ^ Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. acel
9. ^ 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, 11
10. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 7