aidoma

Forms

aidoma^[1] DELR records the old variant avidomă and a Muntenian idoma;^[2] MDA2 adds aghidomă and agidomă.^[3][2] Dosoftei has avidomă in his lives of the saints: „Arată-te, să te vadă avidomă” “show yourself, so that they may see you plainly”.^[4]

Etymology

DELR analyses it as from Romanian a (“at, to”) + *vidom + -a: the preposition and prefix ⟨a⟩, an unattested ⟨*vidom⟩ and the adverbial ending ⟨-a⟩.^[3] The middle part is from Old Church Slavonic видомъ (vidomŭ, “visible”), originally a present passive participle of видѣти (viděti, “to see”);^[5] Cihac, Tiktin, the DA and Scriban gave the same explanation.^[3][6][5] The Romanian ⟨a⟩ continues Latin ad (“to”).^[3]

The DA explains the shape: ⟨*vidoma⟩ became ⟨idoma⟩ in the dialects that turn /vi/ into /i/, and ⟨a⟩ was then added as in aievea, which gave the literary form; the forms with ⟨ghi⟩ and ⟨gi⟩ are dialectal changes of /vi/.^[4] Avram derives the literary form from ⟨avidoma⟩ under the influence of that adverb.^[3] Hasdeu wondered whether it was a Dacian survival, and Laurian and Massim compared it with Ancient Greek εἶδος (eîdos, “form”) and εἴδωλον (eídōlon, “image”); these views are only of historical interest.^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is avidoma in the Hronograf of about 1660.^[3] Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686) use avidomă in its basic sense “in full view, openly”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The DA sets out the development: from “in full view of all” came “evidently” and then “really, in fact”, since what everyone sees can be checked by all; the sense “exactly alike” followed.^[4][2] Tiktin records “really, truly” as a Moldavian use in Alecsandri and Vlahuță.^[8] In modern Romanian “alike, identical” is the main sense and “really” is rare.^[9] Hasdeu noted that the stress always falls on the i, never on the o.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1660 – avidoma in the Hronograf, the first record.^[3]
• 1682–1686 – avidomă “openly, in full view” in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[2][4]
• 1683 – Tiktin's first record, in Dosoftei.^[8]
• 1871 – Laurian and Massim describe it as little known outside the Romanian principalities.^[7]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Just like, the same as; identically: Băiatul e aidoma tatălui său.^[9][2][1]
2. (rare) really, in fact; as if real: aievea.^[9][2]

Related words

• aievea
• vedea

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 30
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. aidoma
4. ^ a b c d e 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. aidoma
5. ^ a b Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
6. ^ 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. aidoma
7. ^ a b Laurian, A. T.; Massim, I. C. (1871), Glossariu care coprinde vorbele d'in limba romana straine prin originea sau form'a loru, cumu si celle de origine indouiosa, Bucuresci: Noua Typographia a Laboratoriloru Romani, p. s.v. aidoma
8. ^ 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. aídoma
9. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 23
10. ^ Hasdeu, B. P. (1886–1898), Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae: dicționarul limbei istorice și poporane a românilor, 4 vols. (A–Bărbat), București: Socec, p. s.v. aidoma