bătrân

Forms

bătrân m or n (feminine singular bătrână, masculine plural bătrâni, feminine/neuter plural bătrâne)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin vetrānus (“old”), the syncopated form of Latin veterānus (“old, mature; veteran”), which is formed on vetus (“old”) with -ānus.^[1][2][3] The syncopated form is attested in Latin inscriptions.^[2][3] DEX and MDA2 cite the popular spelling betranus.^[4][5]

Ciorănescu stresses that the sense “old” belonged to the Latin word before its military use.^[2] Șăineanu took the opposite view: “old soldier” first, generalized in Vulgar Latin.^[6] The OLD records the Latin word for old, mature animals and plants as its first sense.^[3]

The adjective survives in all four branches: Aromanian bitãrnu, Megleno-Romanian bitǫra and Istro-Romanian betăr.^[2][7][8] The same sense “old” is found in Dalmatian vetrun and in old forms of north-eastern Italy such as Venetian vetrano, and Friulian vedran means “bachelor”.^[2][9][1] The neologism veteran is a doublet of it.^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1399.^[11] MDA2's first record is the Codicele Voronețean of about 1563–1583.^[5] Coresi's psalter of 1570 has the plural bătrînii “the old men”.^[12] In 1649 Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon renders старецъ “old man” with it.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Used of people and animals, the adjective came to mean “of old times, ancient”, as in vremuri bătrâne, and of wine or plum brandy “aged”.^[4][11] Tiktin notes that bătrân is the opposite of tânăr “young”, while vechi is the opposite of nou “new”.^[11]

As a noun it means an old person, and in the plural the forefathers, as in din bătrâni “from of old”.^[4][5] In the old law of Moldavia and Wallachia a bătrân was the share of an estate descending from a common ancestor.^[2][5][14] Bătrânii satului were the village elders.^[5] In the family it means “father”, bătrâna “mother”, bătrânii “the parents”, and in Muntenia and Moldavia also “grandfather”.^[4][2][15] Slang has bătrân for a thousand-lei note and, among students, for one in the later years.^[2][16]

Timeline

• 1399 – first record.^[11]
• c. 1563–1583 – bătrân in the Codicele Voronețean.^[5]
• 1570 – bătrînii “the old men” in Coresi's psalter.^[12]
• 1649 – Mardarie's lexicon renders Slavonic старецъ “old man” with it.^[13]
• 1688 – bătrân, bătrânii throughout the Bucharest Bible.^[17]
• 1995 – bătrân “senior student” in the press.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. old, advanced in years, or of a face, no longer fresh and showing age: fată bătrână is a spinster.^[4][5][1]
2. Existing for a long time, of old times.^[4]

Noun

1. An old man or an old woman.^[4][5][1]
2. (familiar) father, in the feminine mother, in the plural the parents.^[4][5]
3. (in the plural, popular) The ancestors: din bătrâni “from of old”.^[4][5]
4. (regional) Grandfather.^[2][15]
5. (obsolete) A share of an estate inherited from a common ancestor.^[2][5]
6. (student slang) A student in the later years, as against the first-years.^[16][18]

Word family

• bătrânel
• bătrânesc
• bătrânește
• bătrânețe
• bătrânime
• îmbătrâni

Related words

• veteran
• Aromanian bitãrnu
• Latin veterānus

Usage notes

Tiktin records sayings such as lup bătrân “an old wolf”, an experienced man, and Calul bătrân nu învață în buiestru “an old horse won't learn to amble”.^[11] Tata bătrân and mama bătrână are regional names for the grandparents.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. bătrîn
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 96
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 187
6. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 58
7. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 200
8. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9287
10. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 69
11. ^ 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. bătrân
12. ^ 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 148:12
13. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. bătrîn
14. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 160
15. ^ a b Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”
16. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE)
17. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 18:11
18. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu