ce

Forms

ce (invariable); Moldavian ci.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quid (“what”), which survives in every Romance language.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin word comes from Proto-Indo-European *kʷid.^[1] DELR adds that as a relative pronoun and adjective it also continues quem and quae, which both became Vulgar Latin *que, as the neuter did in Danubian Latin, after Meyer-Lübke.^[2]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian ți or Aromanian țe, Megleno-Romanian ți and Istro-Romanian țe.^[3][2][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian che, French que, Occitan que, Catalan que, Spanish que and Portuguese que.^[3][8]

Ciorănescu holds that ci “but” is the same word, which split from it in the 17th and 18th centuries with that special sense, and old texts often use it in the modern sense of the conjunction.^[3] Cipariu and Tiktin tried instead to derive the conjunction from Latin quīn.^[3] Several pronouns are compounds of it: ceva “something”, whose second part is from voi, fiece, oarece and orice.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The pronoun is in the oldest texts: the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, copied early in the 16th century, has it from the first psalm on.^[9][2] Tiktin's first dated record is Neacșu's letter of 1521, and MDA2's the Codicele Voronețean of 1563–1583.^[10][4]

Semantic evolution

Ciorănescu lists the interrogative pronoun and adjective, the exclamative use (often with mai: ce de...! “what a lot of...!”), indirect questions after verbs of saying and perceiving, the relative “which”, and an old sense “but”.^[3] Pușcariu compares the exclamative Ce om sălbatic! with Italian Che uomo salvatico! in Goldoni.^[8] A Romanian turn is the inverted definition with a fi: prost ce ești “fool that you are”, which Ciorănescu explains either from the relative or from the exclamative use.^[3] As a noun, un ce is “a something”.^[3][11]

The family includes learned words for “essence”, ceință (1704) and ceime (1837), both modelled on Medieval Latin quidditas.^[2]

Timeline

• early 16th century – in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[9]
• 1521 – in Neacșu's letter.^[10]
• 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean; altceva “something else”, as altuceva, in the same period.^[4][2]
• 1704 – ceință “essence”.^[2]
• 1837 – ceime “essence”.^[2]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. what: asks about a thing, an action or a state: Ce cauți? “What are you looking for?”; as an adjective, “which, what kind of”.^[11][1]
2. why, for what reason: Ce plângi? “Why are you crying?”, and de ce “why”.^[11]
3. Expresses surprise or indignation: “what!”.^[11]
4. (adverbial) How, how much: Ce frumos cântă! “How beautifully she sings!”, and cât pe ce “very nearly”, din ce în ce “more and more”.^[11]
5. Introduces an indirect question: Nu știu ce să-i răspund. “I don't know what to answer him.”^[11]
6. (relative) Which, that; also “what”, “that which”: ce-i drept “to be sure”.^[11]
7. (indefinite) Something; whatever: un ce “a certain something”.^[11]

Word family

• altceva
• ceime
• ceință
• ceva
• fiece
• oarece
• orice
• ci
• căci

Related words

• Aromanian ți
• Latin quid

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ce
3. ^ 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. ce
4. ^ 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, 348
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6953
6. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 176
7. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula, p. s.v. țe
8. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 27
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 1:2
10. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ce 1
11. ^ 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. 1, 165