aduce

Forms

a aduce (third-person singular present aduce, past participle adus, third-person subjunctive aducă), 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin addūcō (“to lead to, bring”), formed from ad- and dūcō (“to lead”).^[2][3][4][1] It is thus a compound of the same verb as duce.^[2][3]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian aduc, Megleno-Romanian duc and Istro-Romanian aducu.^[2][5][6] In Megleno-Romanian the initial ⟨a-⟩ was lost, so that the verb merged with the verb for “to carry”.^[3] The Romance cognates include Italian addurre, Old French aduire, Catalan adur and Spanish aducir.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to about 1500, the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, which has the imperative aduceţi “bring!” in Psalm 28:1.^[3][8] MDA2 and Tiktin cite the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583): „Legați să-i aducă întru Ierusalim” “to bring them bound to Jerusalem”.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

Besides “to bring”, the verb soon meant “to lead someone somewhere” and figuratively “to produce, yield” and “to cause”.^[10][2] From “to draw towards oneself” came the sense “to bend, curve”, which in turn gave the intransitive “to resemble”, as in își aduce cu tatăl său “he looks somewhat like his father”.^[3][2][11] Old grammarians called quotation marks aducătoare, the signs that “bring” someone's words;^[3][9] DELR dates aducător itself from 1570.^[3][9]

The noun adusătură named an illness believed to be brought on by witchcraft.^[3][2] In Aromanian the derivative aducătură came to mean “conduct”.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – the first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki; the noun aducere “offering” is in the same text.^[3]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4][9]
• 1570 – aducător “one who brings” in Coresi's Liturghier.^[3]
• 1581 – the noun adus in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[3]
• c. 1650 – adusătură in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[3]
• 1818 – aducătură “an illness brought on by spells” in Budai-Deleanu's lexicon.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bring: to take something or someone along and come with it to a place or person.^[12][1]
2. To draw something towards oneself; to give a movement or direction to something: a aduce vorba despre “to bring the conversation round to”.^[12]
3. To produce, yield; to cause.^[12][4]
4. To bring someone or something into a situation or state: a aduce la îndeplinire “to carry out”.^[12][9]
5. Intransitive, to resemble someone or something somewhat.^[12][2]
6. In the phrase a-și aduce aminte, to remember.^[12]

Word family

• aducător
• aducere
• adus
• adusătură
• adusoare
• readuce

Related words

• duce
• Aromanian aduc
• Latin addūcō

Usage notes

The imperative is adu.^[12] Proverbs with the verb include nu aduce anul ce aduce ceasul “an hour may bring what a year does not”.^[9][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. aduce
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. aduce
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 19
5. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 58
6. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 169
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 160
8. ^ 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 28:1
9. ^ 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. aduce
10. ^ a b 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. aduce
11. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 9
12. ^ 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. 15