ascunde

Forms

ascunde (third-person singular present ascunde, past participle ascuns, third-person subjunctive ascundă; 3rd conjugation)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin abscondō (“to hide”), a verb that survives across the Romance languages.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DELR analyses the Latin verb as abs- and condō (“to put together, to store in a safe place”), itself formed with con- on the root Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).^[3] The participle ascuns and the old simple past continue absconsum and the matching perfect, by-forms that existed beside the classical participle and perfect.^[2] Candrea and Densusianu explain that the /n/ before /s/ in the past forms was restored from the rest of the verb.^[6]

The verb survives in all four branches: Aromanian ascundu, Megleno-Romanian șcund and Istro-Romanian ascunde.^[2][3][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian nascondere and Italian ascondere, Old French escondre, Catalan escondir and Spanish esconder.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to about 1500, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3] The 16th-century psalters use it for hiding something from sight or knowledge, as in Psalm 118:19, where the form ascunde appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki and again in Coresi's psalter of 1570.^[9] MDA2's first record is the Tetraevanghel of 1574.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The verb has kept its Latin sense of putting something where it cannot be seen or found, which gave the figurative sense of keeping a fact or a feeling secret.^[4][2] MDA2 also records “to cover” and the reflexive “to keep away from someone out of shyness, fear or shame”.^[10] Tiktin quotes the proverb Nu ascunde mâța că i se văd unghiile “don't hide the cat, for its claws can be seen”.^[11]

The participle was soon used as a noun: ascuns and ascunsă “secret” are both in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3] DELR takes ascunsoare “hiding place” (1566) from a Latin *absconsōria, while ascunzător, ascunzătoare and ascunziș are Romanian formations.^[3] The children's game de-a v-ați ascunselea “hide-and-seek” comes from the question v-ați ascuns? “are you hidden?”, taken as a noun.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – the first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, with the participle ascuns and the noun ascunsă “secret”.^[3]
• 1566 – ascunsoare “hiding place” in Coresi.^[3]
• 1570 – ascunde in Coresi's psalter.^[9]
• 1574 – the Tetraevanghel, MDA2's first record.^[10]
• 1691–1697 – ascunzător “that hides” in Teodor Corbea's dictionary.^[3]
• 1836 – ascunzătoare “hiding place”.^[3]
• 1886 – ascunziș “hidden place”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hide, to put someone or something where they cannot be seen or found; reflexive: to hide oneself.^[4][10][1]
2. (figurative) To conceal a fact, a thought or a feeling, to keep it from being known.^[4][12]
3. To cover.^[10]
4. Reflexive: to keep out of someone's way from shyness, fear or shame.^[10]

Word family

• ascuns
• ascunsoare
• ascunzătoare
• ascunzător
• ascunzătură
• ascunziș

Related words

• Aromanian ascundu
• Latin abscondō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. ascunde
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ascunde
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 66
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 41
6. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 97
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 164
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 261
9. ^ 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 118:19
10. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 108
11. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ascunde
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. ascunde