auzi

Forms

auzi (present aud, third-person singular aude, past participle auzit, subjunctive să audă), fourth conjugation^[1][2] Beside the present aud and subjunctive să audă, popular speech has auz and să auză.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin audiō (“to hear”).^[4][5][2][1] De Vaan explains the Latin verb as a compound of Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewis (“clearly, manifestly”) and the root *dʰeh₁-, “to make manifest”.^[6][1]

The verb survives in all four branches: Aromanian avdu, Megleno-Romanian ut and Istro-Romanian ǫvdu.^[4][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian udire, Occitan auzir, French ouïr, Spanish oír and Portuguese ouvir.^[4][8]

Latin /d/ before /i/ gave Romanian /z/, which spread from ⟨tu auzi⟩ to the popular ⟨eu auz⟩ and ⟨să auză⟩.^[4] The stress of ⟨a-úd⟩, where the Aromanian verb has ⟨ávdu⟩, has no satisfactory explanation: Weigand thought it arose first in questions, and Ciorănescu points to the wavering stress in the hiatus /au/.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to about 1500, in the Hurmuzaki Psalter, which has the form aud “they hear”.^[5][9] Tiktin cites it from Neacșu's letter of 1521.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Besides “to hear” the verb means “to learn, hear news of”, and in the reflexive “to be rumoured”.^[4][3] The imperative auzi! and ia auzi! express annoyed surprise at what someone has said, and aud? answers a call, “yes? what is it?”.^[10][3]

In Moldavia the verb also means “to smell”, mostly of a bad smell;^[11][5] Graur compared Ukrainian чути (čuty), which has both senses, in villages where both languages are spoken.^[11][5] Derivatives include the noun auz “hearing”, already in the Hurmuzaki Psalter, and auzit “news, renown” (1551–1553).^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – auzi and the noun auz in the Hurmuzaki Psalter.^[5]
• 1521 – in Neacșu's letter.^[10]
• 1551–1553 – auzit “news, renown” in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel.^[5]
• 1566 – auzit “hearing” in Coresi.^[5]
• c. 1650 – auzitură “hearing” in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[5]
• 1688 – auzitor “hearer” in the Bucharest Bible.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To hear: to perceive sounds with the ear.^[3][1]
2. (transitive, in the imperative) To listen, pay attention: Ia auzi ce zice!^[3]
3. To understand; in the first person, aud? answers a call: “Yes? What is it?”^[3]
4. To learn (news); a auzi de cineva “to have heard of someone”;^[3][4] din auzite “by hearsay”.^[3][4]
5. (reflexive, third person) To be rumoured.^[3]
6. (regional, Moldavia) To smell, usually badly.^[5][11]

Word family

• auz
• auzit
• auzitor
• auzitură
• nemaiauzit
• neauzit

Related words

• Aromanian avdu
• Latin audiō

Usage notes

Expressions: să te-audă Dumnezeu! “may God hear you!”, eu spun, eu aud “nobody listens to me” and să se audă musca “so quiet you could hear a fly”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 143
3. ^ 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. 80
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. auzi
5. ^ 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. auzi
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 180
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 779
9. ^ 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 113:14
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. auzi
11. ^ a b c Graur, Alexandru (1975), Alte etimologii românești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. auzi