avere

Forms

avere f (plural averi)^[1] Coresi's text of 1581 spells it aveare: „nu mai cruțaiu de în aveare ce-mi era dăruită de Dumnezeu” “I spared nothing of the wealth that God had given me”.^[2] Folk poetry also uses the plural averile with the sense of the singular: „Că-mi slăbesc puterile, Mi se duc averile” “for my strength is failing, my wealth is going”.^[3]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of avea “to have” used as a noun, from Romanian avea + -re.^[2][4][3][1] The DA explains it as a verbal abstract that later came to mean the things one has, and compares the same use in Italian avere, French avoir and Spanish haberes.^[2] Ciorănescu also compares the French and Spanish words.^[5] The verb is from Latin habeō (“to have”).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581, already with the sense “possessions, wealth”.^[6][4][3]

Semantic evolution

MDA2 lists the abstract senses “possession, holding” before the concrete one, the whole of what a person or a community owns.^[4] The DA sets avere, anything one owns, little or much, apart from avuție and bogăție, great wealth, and stare, wealth enough to live well.^[2] Tiktin's synonym note says the same.^[2][3] Phrases include a face avere “to make a fortune” and avere părintească “inheritance”; in bookkeeping the word named the credit side of an account.^[4] In speech it also means simply a very large sum of money.^[7]

Transylvanian Saxon borrowed the word as avere “wealth”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1581 – aveare in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură, the first record.^[6][2]
• 1688 – the plural averile in the Bucharest Bible.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. wealth, property: all the goods a person or a community owns.^[7][4][1]
2. A very large sum of money, a fortune.^[7][4]
3. (dated, economics) The credit side of an account.^[4]

Related words

• avea
• avut
• avuție

Usage notes

A face avere means “to get rich”, a pierde averea “to become poor”.^[4] The proverb Mulțimea copiilor, averea românului says that many children are a Romanian's wealth.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. avere
3. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. avere
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 146
5. ^ a b c 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. avea
6. ^ a b 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. avea
7. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 81