către

Forms

către (+accusative)^[1] The older and regional form is cătră;^[2][3][4] Transylvania, the Banat, Maramureș and Oaș have cătă, and old texts also have cătru, cîtră and cître.^[2][3][4] The Psaltirea Scheiană has cătru in Psalm 17:42.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin contrā (“opposite, against”).^{[2][3][1][6][5][7]} DELR takes cătră as the original form, which took its final /e/ under the influence of între, while cătă lost its /r/ by dissimilation in phrases where the next word has an /r/.^[2] Candrea and Densusianu explain the changes by the word's unstressed position in the sentence: the /n/ fell as in the compounds with con- (compare cutremura, cutreiera), unstressed /o/ became /ă/ as in că and fără, and the final /e/ came from other prepositions such as spre.^[5] The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *kom-tero-, built on Proto-Indo-European *ḱom- (“with”).^[8]

The preposition survives in all four branches of Romanian: Aromanian cătră (also cătă), Megleno-Romanian cǫtru (also cutru) and Istro-Romanian câtrę.^[2][5] Its Romance cognates include Italian contro, French contre, Catalan contra, Spanish contra and Portuguese contra.^[2][7] The learned contra is a doublet.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the form cătră to about 1500; the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century uses it 94 times, from Psalm 2:7 on.^[2][9] MDA2's first record is the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), and the modern form către appears in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3][10]

Semantic evolution

The DA describes the original Latin sense as “with the face turned towards”, a position that could be either at rest or in motion.^[6] Latin and the old Romanian texts mostly took it in the hostile sense “against”, while the friendly sense “towards, in regard to” became the usual one in Romanian.^[6] The old language also used it for purpose, “for, in order to”, and for nearness, “beside, close to”.^[2][4]

Modern Romanian uses it for direction (către casă “towards home”), for approximate time (către seară “towards evening”) and for an attitude towards someone; after de it introduces the agent of a passive: de către “by”.^[4][3]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – cătră, the first record.^[2]
• early 16th century – cătră throughout the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[9]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• c. 1573–1578 – către and cătru in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[10][5]

Meanings

Preposition

1. towards, to, in the direction of: către casă “homewards”; after de, from the direction of;^[4][1] (popular) near, beside.^[4][1]
2. Of time, about, around: către seară “towards evening”.^[4]
3. In regard to, towards a person: respect către părinți “respect for one's parents”;^[4][3] (obsolete) against.^[4][3]
4. After de, introducing the agent of a passive: de către “by”.^[4]
5. (obsolete) For, with the aim of.^[4][2]

Related words

• contra
• spre
• Aromanian cătră
• Latin contrā

Usage notes

De către introduces the agent of a passive verb: scrisoarea a fost trimisă de către director “the letter was sent by the director”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. către
3. ^ 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, 335
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 161
5. ^ a b c d e Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. către
6. ^ a b c 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. către
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2187
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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 2:7
10. ^ 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 29:10