atât

Forms

atât, also atâta (feminine atâta, plural atâți or atâția, feminine plural atâtea; genitive–dative atâtor)^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum tantum (“see, so much”), a compound of Latin eccum (“here he is”) and tantum (“so much”).^[4][3][5][1] The first syllable of compounds with this particle regularly became ⟨a-⟩ in Romanian.^[1] DELR compares the loss of the ⟨u⟩ of the particle and the simplified consonant group with așa, and the loss of the nasal with cât.^[4]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian ahtãntu, Megleno-Romanian tăntu and Istro-Romanian acât.^[4][3][6][7] Aromanian variants such as ahãntu show the stages of the change, and Ciorănescu reads the Romanian form as their end point.^[3][1] Capidan derives the Megleno-Romanian word from the simple Latin adverb, without the particle.^[7] The rest of the Romance languages inherited the simple adverb, as French tant and Spanish tanto; a compound with the particle like the Romanian one appears only in Italian cotanto, and Ciorănescu also compares Old French itant.^[4][3][8] Cihac had derived the word from a Latin phrase with ad (“to”), and Scriban traced it through Aromanian forms, with the vowel influenced by tot.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the form atâta, in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book of 1551–1553.^[4] MDA2 and Tiktin date atât to the Codicele Voronețean of the 16th century.^[5][11] Its sense was already “so much, to such a degree”.^[4][12]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word served as an adverb, an adjective and a pronoun, often in pairs with cât: atât... cât “as much... as”.^[3][2] Atâta, with the deictic -a also found in acela, was at first a variant of the same word, and the modern language prefers it as the pronoun and adjective, while atât is the usual adverb.^[4][3][2] Romanian also made diminutives for “so little”: atâtuț (1825), atâtica (1847) and atâticuța.^[4]

Many phrases grew from the comparison: cu atât mai bine “so much the better”, tot atât “all the same”, încă pe atât “twice as much” and the ominous atât ți-a fost “you'll regret it”.^[3][2] Familiar phrases use it too: atâta pagubă “so much the worse, I don't care”.^[11][10]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – atâta in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book.^[4]
• 16th century – atât in the Codicele Voronețean.^[5][11]
• 1582 – the hapax atătând “just as much”, of uncertain formation.^[4]
• 1675 – atât in Năsturel's Varlaam și Ioasaf.^[4]
• 1688 – atâta in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]
• 1825 – the diminutive atâtuț in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[4]
• 1847 – the diminutive atâtica in Alecsandri.^[4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. To such a degree, so much, so: Nu mai vorbi atât! With de before an adjective or adverb: atât de frumos “so beautiful”.^[2][3]
2. In correlation with cât: as much as;^[2][5] atât... cât și “both... and”.^[2][5]
3. only this and no more: Atât îți cer.^[2][14]

Pronoun

1. (usually atâta) That much, that amount: Atâta am putut face. Atâta tot means “that's all”.^[2]

Adjective

1. (usually atâta, atâția, atâtea) So much, so many: atâția oameni “so many people”.^[2][11]

Word family

• atâta
• atâtica

Related words

• cât
• Aromanian ahtãntu
• Latin tantum

Usage notes

The -a forms are added irregularly, so atâți oameni and atâția oameni mean the same.^[3] The genitive atâtor is often replaced by a construction with la: la atâția copii.^[3] The adverb atât is usual in the west and atâta in the east.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 71
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. atât
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. atât
5. ^ 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, 121
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 74
7. ^ a b Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 290
8. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. cotanto
9. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 20
10. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 135
11. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. atât
12. ^ Gaster, M. (1891), Chrestomatie română: texte tipărite și manuscrise (sec. XVI–XIX), dialectale și populare, cu o introducere, gramatică și un glosar româno-francez, vol. II, Leipzig: Brockhaus / București: Socec, p. s.v. atât
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ieșirea 1:12
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. atât