acela

Forms

acela m, aceea f; plural aceia m, acelea f; genitive-dative aceluia, aceleia, plural acelora.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian acel + -a, the demonstrative with an enclitic ⟨-a⟩.^[3][1] That demonstrative itself goes back to Latin ecce (“behold”) and ille (“that”), which became *ecce illum or *eccum illum.^[4][2][5] The word survives in Megleno-Romanian as țela and in Istro-Romanian as cela.^[3]

The origin of the final ⟨-a⟩ is disputed.^[4][3] Pușcariu and the DA derive it from illāc (“there”), as in French celui-là;^[6][3] DELR puts this view first, with the /l/ of the adverb lost between vowels as in ea.^[6][3] Ciorănescu rejects it and takes the ⟨-a⟩ to be the feminine article, which the old language also put on adjectives.^[4] Hasdeu thought it a deictic particle from the substrate, and Rosetti saw it as modelled on acesta.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to about 1500, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, which has acela and its other forms in many psalms.^[3][7] MDA2 cites the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583).^[5]

Semantic evolution

The pronoun points to someone or something relatively far from the speaker in space or time, in contrast with acesta.^[2][8] Hasdeu found it more emphatic than the bare acel, and quoted Arsenie of Bisericani's version of Psalm 94, about 1650, where aceluia stands for “his”.^[8] In the old language acel and acea could also be used as pronouns, a use DEX now labels obsolete.^[2][5]

The neuter sense survives in adverbial phrases: de aceea “that is why”, drept aceea “therefore” and afară de aceea “besides”.^[2] Regionally ca acela meant “powerful, remarkable”.^[2][5] From acela came același “the same”, recorded from about 1500 too.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – acela, aceluia, aceia and acelora in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[3][7]
• c. 1500 – același “the same” in the same text.^[3]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[5]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. that one: points to a person or thing relatively distant from the speaker: Cine sunt aceia? “Who are those people?”^[2][1]
2. The feminine aceea, with a neuter sense, in phrases: de aceea “that is why”, drept aceea “therefore”, afară de aceea “besides”.^[2]

Adjective

1. Placed after the noun, that: drumul acela “that road”, pădurea aceea “that forest”; before the noun the form is acel.^[2]

Word family

• același

Related words

• acel
• acesta
• ăla

Usage notes

Before a noun the form without -a is used (acel om), after it the form with -a (omul acela); in folk speech and poetry the rule was not always kept.^[4][2] The feminine is spelled aceea, the masculine plural aceia.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 g h i j 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
4. ^ a b c d e 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
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 7
6. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 2
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 9:8
8. ^ a b Hasdeu, B. P. (1886–1898), Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae: dicționarul limbei istorice și poporane a românilor, 4 vols. (A–Bărbat), București: Socec, p. s.v. acela