apoi

Forms

Variants are apăi, apă, api and apu; popular Romanian also has the shortened păi and poi.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ad post (“after”), a phrase of ad (“to”) and post (“after, behind”).^{[5][4][2][3][1]} Ciorănescu compares the final /i/ with that of noi.^[5]

The word survives in Aromanian as apoi and apoia, and in Megleno-Romanian as napoi and poia;^[4][6] DELR also records it in Istro-Romanian.^[5][4][6] The other Romance languages mostly continue the simple Latin adverb (Italian poi, French puis, Spanish pues), but forms with the prefix occur in Italian dialects and Old Portuguese: Italian appo and Portuguese apos.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of about 1500, in the sense “after that, then”.^[4][8] MDA2 cites the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578), Tiktin the Codicele Voronețean.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is temporal, “afterwards, then”; old texts also use it of place, “behind, back”.^[5][2] From “then” it took the consequential sense “in that case, if so”, and as a filler and connective it came to mean “but, besides, moreover”, senses it shares with păi.^[5][3] Mai apoi “later” is common in the Bucharest Bible of 1688.^[9]

Romanian formed înapoi “back, behind” from the word with în-, already in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki; the verb înapoia “to give back”, formed on that adverb, is recorded in 1819.^[4] Ciorănescu reports, after Miklosich, that the Bulgarian of Transylvania borrowed the word as apa.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – apoi “then” and înapoi “back” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[4]
• c. 1573–1578 – apoi in the Psaltirea Scheiană, MDA2's first record.^[2]
• 1683 – înapoișurea “back” in Dosoftei.^[4]
• 1688 – mai apoi “later” in the Bucharest Bible.^[9]
• 1819 – înapoia “to give back”.^[4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. afterwards, then, next: întâi a mâncat, apoi a plecat “first he ate, then he left”.^[3][1]
2. (conjunctive) Then, in that case, if so.^[3][5]
3. besides, moreover; but, otherwise: și apoi “and what's more”.^[3][5]

Word family

• înapoi
• înapoia
• înapoiat
• înapoișurea
• apoiț

Related words

• păi
• după
• Aromanian apoi
• Latin post

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 81
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 54
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. apoi
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. apoi
6. ^ a b Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 91
7. ^ Hasdeu, B. P. (1886–1898), Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae: dicționarul limbei istorice și poporane a românilor, 4 vols. (A–Bărbat), București: Socec, p. s.v. apoi
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 9:35
9. ^ 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. apoi