biet

Forms

biet m or n (feminine singular biată, masculine plural bieți, feminine/neuter plural biete)^[1] Regional forms are bet, feminine beată, and in Vâlcea bied.^[2][3]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed, and DELR calls it uncertain.^[3][4] DELR gives two probable sources.^[3] The first is inherited from Latin viētus (“withered, shrivelled, weak”), proposed by Diez and Densusianu and thought possible by Tiktin.^[3][5] Pușcariu and the REW reject it on phonetic grounds: Latin had reduced it to *vētus, as quiētus became *quētus, the source of încet.^[3][6] The second is Giuglea's bīliātus (“angry”), the participle of a verb found in glossaries and formed on bīlis (“bile; vexation”), with the masculine remade after the feminine biată and the same shift of meaning as in amărât.^[3]

Ciorănescu prefers vetus (“old”), which already in Classical Latin could refer to the ancestors and the dead: a phrase for “poor Peter” would first have meant “the late Peter”.^[4] He compares Italian vieto (“stale, old”).^[4] Wiktionary also prefers this source, while DELR finds it problematic because the Latin adjective survived only as the diminutive vetulus, which gave vechi.^[1][3] Pușcariu proposed beātus (“blessed”), used of the dead, which DELR finds weak in meaning.^[3][5]

Cihac and Pușcariu's dictionary derived it from Old Church Slavonic бѣдьнъ (bědĭnŭ, “poor, wretched”),^[4][3][7] and DEX 2009 and MDA2 compare that word.^[8][2] Ciorănescu thinks a Slavonic source phonetically impossible, and Wiktionary allows only an influence of the Slavic word.^[4][1] Ciorănescu adds that Transylvanian Saxon borrowed the Romanian word.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is in Moxa's chronicle of 1620, with the sense “pitiable, poor”.^[3] Tiktin's is Dosoftei's verse psalter of 1673: Bietele mele cuvinte “my poor words”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word expresses the speaker's pity rather than a quality of the thing named, so it stands before the noun and cannot follow it, except in apposition.^[4][9] It is common of dead members of the family, bietul tata “my poor late father”, and DEX and MDA2 give “lamented” as a sense of its own.^[4][8][2] From pity it moved to contempt: “wretched, worthless”.^[8][2]

Tiktin records it in inserted wishes, biată să fie de păcate “may she be free of sins”, and as an adverb of pity, “the poor thing”.^[5] DELR dates the diminutives bietuliță to 1881, bietuleț to 1893 and bietuc to 1906.^[3]

Timeline

• 1620 – in Moxa's chronicle, the first record.^[3]
• 1673 – bietele in Dosoftei's verse psalter.^[5]
• 1881 – the diminutive bietuliță.^[3]
• 1893 – the diminutive bietuleț.^[3]
• 1906 – the diminutive bietuc.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (before nouns for beings) pitiable, poor, wretched.^[8][2] Of the dead: lamented, late.^[8][2][1]
2. Contemptible, worthless, of no importance: un biet ban “a mere coin”.^[8][2][5]

Word family

• bietuc
• bietuleț

Related words

• Latin viētus

Usage notes

Biet comes only before the noun or stands as a noun; after the noun it occurs only in apposition, where Ciorănescu prefers it uninflected: omul, biet, nu pricepea.^[4][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, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 204
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. biet
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. biet
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. biet
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9325
7. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
8. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 102
9. ^ 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. biet