alege

Forms

alege (third-person singular present alege, past participle ales, third-person subjunctive aleagă; 3rd conjugation)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin allegō (“to choose, to recruit”), formed with ad- on legō (“to gather, to choose, to read”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Ciorănescu notes that it survives only in Romanian and in Italian, as Italian alleggere of the old language and northern dialects;^[3][2] DELR also cites Dalmatian.^[3][2] Hasdeu and Tiktin derived it from ēligō (“to choose”), which the REW also allowed;^[2][3] Ciorănescu calls this certainly wrong.^[2][3]

The verb survives south of the Danube as Aromanian aleg and Megleno-Romanian leg.^[3][2][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500), and the form aleseși “you chose” is in its Psalm 46:4.^[2][8] MDA2 gives the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583).^[9] The oldest sense is “to separate, to sort out”: the 1688 Bible says „cum alege păstoriul oile de capre” “as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:32).^[10]

Semantic evolution

From separating and sorting, as of chaff from grain or butter from milk, the verb came to mean “to tell apart, to discern” and “to choose”, and then “to elect by vote”.^[10][3][2] Old documents used it for marking out someone's share of an estate.^[10] The reflexive a se alege cu “to end up with something” and a se alege “to come of it, to result” are also recorded.^[3][9]

The participle ales is an adjective, “choice, distinguished”, as old as the verb, and gave the adverb mai ales “especially”.^[2][3] The old alegând meant “except” (1551–1558), and alesător was the boyar who fixed estate boundaries (Ureche).^[2] alegător “voter” is recorded from 1691–1697, and realege “to re-elect” from 1841, after French réélire.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – the first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, with the participle ales “chosen”.^[2][8]
• 1551–1558 – alegând “except” in the Psaltirea de la Voroneț.^[2]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean, MDA2's first record.^[9]
• 1567–1568 – alesătură “choice; parting of the hair; a weaving ornament” in Coresi.^[2]
• 1642–1647 – alesător, a boyar who fixed estate boundaries, in Ureche.^[2]
• 1691–1697 – alegător in Teodor Corbea's dictionary.^[2]
• 1841 – realege “to re-elect”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To choose, to prefer someone or something; to decide.^[5][1]
2. To elect by vote.^[5][1]
3. (popular) To separate from others; to sort out, to pick over.^[5][9]
4. To tell apart, to discern.^[3][9]
5. Reflexive, with cu: to be left with, to end up with: S-a ales cu o răceală. “He ended up with a cold.”^[3][2]

Word family

• ales
• alesător
• alesătură
• realege
• alegător
• alegere

Related words

• culege
• înțelege
• Aromanian aleg
• Latin legō

Usage notes

Mai ales means “especially”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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. alege
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. alege
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 364
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 27
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 81
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 168
8. ^ 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 46:4
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, 39
10. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. alege