azi

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *hadie (“today”), a local form of Latin hodiē (“today”) with ⟨a⟩ in place of ⟨o⟩.^[2][1][3] The dictionaries explain the vowel in two ways.^[4][3] Ciorănescu, DEX and Wiktionary start from the phrase hāc diē (“on this day”), reduced to the Vulgar Latin form by confusion with the adverb, which it replaced.^[3][5][1] DELR prefers the adverb itself, kept in all the other Romance languages, with the vowel remade to agree with the feminine diēs (“day”).^[4] Its reasons are the stress: the phrase would have stressed the noun, while the adverb matches the stressed first syllable of the Romanian word; and Romance lost hic (“this”) as an adjective.^[4]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian adzã, Megleno-Romanian ază and Istro-Romanian åze.^[4][3][6] Tiktin thought it might be shortened from astăzi;^[4][3] DELR answers that the southern forms make a late shortening unlikely.^[4][3] Hasdeu's Latin ad diem (“to the day”) does not fit the stress.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is from 1784, in the collection Acte Ardeal.^[4] MDA2 cites Ion Ionescu's Calendar pentru bunul gospodar (1845).^[2] It meant “today”, the same as astăzi;^[7] Ionescu writes of a knot that lasts only de azi până mâni “from today till tomorrow”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Besides “today”, it means “nowadays, at present”.^[5] It forms compounds for parts of the day: azi-dimineață “this morning” and azi-noapte “last night”, which Scriban called a Muntenian mistake for astă-noapte.^[5][8] Used as a noun, it names the present day, as in Eminescu: „Din sânul vecinicului ieri / Trăiește azi ce moare” “from the bosom of the eternal yesterday lives the today that dies”.^[9]

Many phrases pair it with mâine: de azi pe mâine “from day to day, in want”, ba azi, ba mâine for endless delay, and azi-mâine “any day now”.^[5][2] Wiktionary marks it as somewhat more informal than astăzi.^[1]

Timeline

• 1784 – in a Transylvanian record, the first.^[4]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda lists adzi as a variant of astăzi.^[10]
• 1845 – in Ion Ionescu's Calendar pentru bunul gospodar.^[2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. today: on the present day.^[5][1]
2. Nowadays, at the present time.^[5][11]

Noun

1. (invariable) The present day.^[5][9]

Related words

• astăzi
• zi
• Aromanian adzã
• Latin hodiē

Usage notes

A trăi de azi pe mâine means to live from hand to mouth.^[5] De azi în trei zile means “three days from today”.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 150
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. azi
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. azi
5. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 82
6. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 21
7. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. astăzi
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 142
9. ^ a b Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 60
10. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 5
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. azi
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 179