adăsta

Forms

adăsta (third-person singular present adastă, past participle adăstat, third-person subjunctive adaste) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *adastāre (“to stand by, be present”), a Late Latin verb formed with a second ad- on astō (“to stand at, stand by”), itself from the same prefix and stō (“to stand”).^[2][3][1] Ciorănescu warns that it must not be confused with a homonymous Latin verb meaning “to hurry”, which is of Germanic origin.^[3] The DA adds that the doubly prefixed verb is attested in late Latin texts, among them the Reichenau Glosses, and that it survives outside Romanian only in Old Italian adastare (“to wait insistently”).^[4][5] Older proposals took it straight from the Latin simple verb (Cihac) or from a compound with ab- as well (Laurian and Massim); DELR lists them beside the standard view.^[2]

The verb survives south of the Danube: Aromanian adastu (“to wait”).^[3][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is in the Codex Bratul of 1559–1560, with the sense “to stay waiting, wait long”.^[2] Tiktin quotes the Codicele Voronețean, translating 1 Peter 3:20: „Cându adăsta a lu Dumnedzeu lungă rebdare” “when the long-suffering of God waited”.^[8] MDA2 also dates its first record to this text (c. 1563–1583).^[9]

Semantic evolution

The DA gives the basic sense as “to stand still”, with the aim of waiting expressed at the same time; the end of the wait is usually marked with până “until”.^[4] From “to wait” the verb took a direct object, “to wait for, await”.^[8][10] CADE also records “to halt on the way, rest”.^[11]

Tiktin calls it poetic today, and Wiktionary labels it now poetic too.^[8][1] DEX marks it as old and regional, and DLRLC as old but poetic in modern use, with quotations from Odobescu and Sadoveanu.^[10][12] It is still recorded as a regional word in the Argeș glossary.^[13]

Timeline

• 1559–1560 – the first record, in the Codex Bratul.^[2]
• c. 1563–1583 – adăsta “waited” in the Codicele Voronețean (1 Peter 3:20).^[8][9]
• 1688 – adăstând in the Bucharest Bible (2 Maccabees 9:25).^[14]
• 1793 – the adjective adăstător “waiting”.^[2]
• 1907 – the verbal noun adăstat in the DA.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, dated or regional; now poetic) To wait for, await someone or something: Te-am adăstat până seara.^[8][10][9]
2. (intransitive) To wait, stay in expectation; to tarry.^[8][4][1]
3. (dated) To halt on the way, rest for a while.^[11]

Word family

• adăstat
• adăstător

Related words

• aștepta
• sta
• Aromanian adastu

Usage notes

The folk phrase a adăsta ca mortul colacul means “to wait impatiently”.^[9] Besides adast the first person present is also adăst and, rarely, adăstez.^[9][10][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. adăsta
3. ^ a b c d 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. adăsta
4. ^ a b c 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. adăsta
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 148
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 56
7. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 16
8. ^ 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. adăsta
9. ^ 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, 14
10. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 12
11. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. adăsta
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 22
13. ^ Constantinescu, Grigore; Constantinescu, Eugenia (2014), Glosar. Arealul etnocultural Argeș-Muscel, p. 11
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 2 Macc 9:25