adevărat

Forms

adevărat m or n (feminine singular adevărată, masculine plural adevărați, feminine/neuter plural adevărate)^[1] Coresi more often has adeverit: „e când va veni acela duh adeverit” “and when that Spirit of truth comes” (John 16:13).^[2] Tiktin records the colloquial adăvărat in Muntenia and adivărat in Moldavia.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Romanian adevăra + -at: the past participle of the old verb “to confirm as true”, the same verb as today's adeveri, used as an adjective.^[3][4][2][1] MDA2 and DEX also derive the adjective from that verb.^[5][6] Ciorănescu takes the verb from Vulgar Latin *addeverō and compares Italian avverare, French avérer and Spanish averar.^[7] MDA2 forms it from adevăr “truth”.^[5]

That noun was first an adverb, “truly”, from a Latin phrase meaning “in truth”, built on ad (“to”) and vērum (“truth”); the Latin adjective vērus (“true”) itself survives only in văr “cousin”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the Codex of Bratul of 1559–1560, and Tiktin's is Coresi in 1561.^[3][2] MDA2's first record is the preface of the Bible of 1688, where wisdom „face pe om adevărat om” “makes man a true man”.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

From the first texts the word meant both “true, not false” (of words and statements) and “real, genuine” (of people and things): Varlaam in 1643 writes that Jesus was „om adevărat” “a true man”.^[4][6] Further senses are “sincere” and “right, correct”, and old texts used it, like adevăr, for “amen”.^[6][5][4]

Used as an adverb it means “truly” (cu adevărat, old pre adevărat), as in the Easter greeting Hristos a înviat! – Adevărat a înviat! “Christ is risen! – He is risen indeed!”.^[5][2]

Timeline

• 1559–1560 – in the Codex of Bratul, the first record.^[3]
• 1561 – in Coresi.^[2]
• 1643 – om adevărat “a true man” in Varlaam's Cazania.^[4]
• 1649 – adevărată in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[8]
• 1688 – in the preface of the Bucharest Bible.^[5]
• 1825 – the Lexicon of Buda glosses it with Latin verus, certus.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (often adverbial) true, in keeping with the truth; undeniable, real, cu adevărat “really, indeed”.^[6][5]
2. genuine, authentic, not false: aur adevărat.^[6][2]
3. (often adverbial) Right, correct, just.^[6][5]
4. sincere: un prieten adevărat.^[6][5]
5. (obsolete, interjection) amen.^[5][4]

Related words

• adevăr
• adeveri
• neadevărat

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. adevărat
3. ^ a b c d 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. adevăr
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. adevărat
5. ^ 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, 15
6. ^ 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. 13
7. ^ 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. adevăra
8. ^ 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. adevărată
9. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 5