care

Forms

Genitive-dative căruia (masculine), căreia (feminine), plural cărora; as an adjective cărui, cărei, căror; plural also cari, old nominative carele.^[2] The old language inflected the articled forms: carele and carile (masculine singular), carea (feminine), carii and carei (masculine plural), carele and carile (feminine plural).^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quālis (“of what kind”).^{[3][4][5][1][6]} In the Romance languages it competed with quī (“who, which”) and became a plain relative and interrogative pronoun.^[7][6]

The pronoun survives in all four branches: Aromanian care or Aromanian cari, Megleno-Romanian cari and Istro-Romanian cårle.^[3][4][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian quale, French quel, Spanish cual and Portuguese qual.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the word to about 1500.^[3] Tiktin's first record is the Codicele Voronețean (Acts 19:35), and MDA2 also cites this text, of about 1563.^[7][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides the relative and interrogative uses inherited from Latin, Romanian gave the word a demonstrative sense (“he who”) and an indefinite one (“each”).^[4][2] In old and popular speech it also served as a conjunction “because”: Ciorănescu traces this to the relative used without a preposition in the oblique cases.^[4] Many indefinite pronouns were formed on it: careși “each” (1551–1553), careva “someone” (1560) and fiecare “each” (1570).^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – the first record.^[3]
• 1551–1553 – careși “each”.^[3]
• 1560 – careva “someone”.^[3]
• c. 1563 – the Codicele Voronețean.^[5][7]
• 1570 – fiecare “each, every”.^[3]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (relative) “who, which, that”: introduces a relative clause: Omul care a sunat e vecinul. “The man who called is the neighbour.”^[2][1]
2. (with the value of a demonstrative) “He who, whoever”; in the phrase care va să zică “that is to say, so”.^[2][4]
3. (with the value of an indefinite) “Each”: au plecat care încotro “they left each his own way”; repeated, “some… others”;^[2][4] care (mai) de care “each more than the other, vying with one another”.^[2][4]
4. (interrogative) “Which? who?”: Care dintre voi a venit? “Which of you came?”^[2][7]

Determiner

1. (interrogative or relative) “Which”: Care carte ți-a plăcut? “Which book did you like?”^[2][1]

Word family

• careși
• careva
• fiecare
• fieștecare
• nicicare
• oarecare
• oricare

Related words

• Latin quālis

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 146
3. ^ 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. care
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. care
5. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 298
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6927
7. ^ 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. care
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 247