bunătate

Forms

bunătate f (plural bunătăți)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin bonitās (“goodness”),^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} formed from bonus (“good”) with the suffix -tās.^[7][1] DELR calls it panromance.^[3] It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian bunătate and Megleno-Romanian bunătati.^[2][8][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian bontà, French bonté, Spanish bondad and Portuguese bondade.^[2][6] Wiktionary notes that within Romanian it corresponds to bun with the suffix -ătate.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, of the early 16th century.^[3] The Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583) has the plural bunătățile in the old sense of the virtues of a good person.^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the word named a moral quality or virtue, and the plural the virtues.^[10] It came to mean kindness and mercy, above all God's mercy, and then goodwill and courtesy.^[10][5] The phrase fă bunătatea “be so kind as to” turned it into a formula of politeness.^[11][5] A good deed or a favour, the good quality of a thing and a good taste followed.^[5][11] In the plural it names fine food and drink and, in the old language, possessions and riches.^[11][5][10] An expression of degree uses it for a person or thing of great worth: o bunătate de om “a most kindly man”.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[3]
• c. 1563–1583 – bunătățile “the virtues” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4][10]
• 1570 – bunătatea in Coresi's Psalter.^[12]
• 1643 – the derivative bunătăcios “virtuous” in Varlaam's Cazania.^[3]
• 1652 – îmbunătăți “to make better”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. kindness, goodness: the quality of being good, the wish to do good; by extension mercy, gentleness.^[5][4][1]
2. Goodwill, courtesy;^[5] ai bunătatea, fă bunătatea “please be so kind as to”.^[5]
3. A good deed, a favour.^[5][4]
4. A good taste.^[5]
5. (chiefly in the plural) A delicacy: very good food or drink.^[5][1]
6. (chiefly in the plural) A thing of very good quality.^[5]
7. (in the plural) Riches, possessions.^[5][4]

Word family

• îmbunătăți

Related words

• bun
• Aromanian bunătate
• Latin bonitas

Usage notes

The plural is bunătăți;^[4] MDA2 also records a rare bunătățuri.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. bunătate
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. bun
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, 260
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 126
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1206
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 229
9. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 108
10. ^ a b c d e 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. bunătate
11. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. bunătate
12. ^ 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 44:3