celălalt

Forms

celălalt m or n (feminine singular cealaltă, masculine plural ceilalți, feminine/neuter plural celelalte)^[1] Genitive-dative singular celuilalt, celeilalte; plural celorlalți, celorlalte.^[2] Variants are celalalt, cellalt and celalt; the older inflection kept the full -a-: celuialalt, ceialalți, celoralalți.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is a compound from Romanian cel + alalt: the demonstrative cel (or acel) with the old pronoun alalt “the other”.^[2][4][5][6] The pronoun combines ille and alter (“the other”) according to MDA2 and Ciorănescu.^[7][8] DELR instead forms it in Romanian, from the old article ⟨al⟩ and alt “other”.^[5] Wiktionary explains the ⟨-l-⟩ of the second part either as a glide between vowels or as a trace of a Latin phrase with the same pronoun.^[1]

It has counterparts south of the Danube: Aromanian alantu and Megleno-Romanian lalt.^[5][3] Romanian formed parallel compounds on the same model: cestălalt, ălălalt and ăstălalt.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578, Psalm 143:13), in the sense “the other”.^[3] DELR dates it from Coresi's homilies of 1581, in the form celalalt.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th and 17th centuries the short alalt still did the same work: Dosoftei writes „alalte șase” “the other six”, and the New Testament of 1648 „unul cătră alalt” “to one another”.^[3] Ciorănescu calls it archaic or Moldavian, replaced in the literary language by celălalt; it remains in alaltăieri “the day before yesterday”.^[8][3] It is contrasted with cestălalt “this other one”.^[3] With words for time it means “the next”, and lumea cealaltă is “the other world”, life after death.^[2][4]

Timeline

• c. 1573-1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană, the first record.^[3]
• 1581 – celalalt in Coresi's homilies.^[5]
• 1675 – cestalalt, the parallel compound, in Miron Costin.^[5]
• 1682 – aloralalți, a form of ălălalt, in Dosoftei.^[5]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. The other one: the farther of two, the second; also as an adjective: Ia cartea cealaltă.^[2][4][1]
2. (plural ceilalți, celelalte) All the others present or in view, apart from those already named.^[2][4]
3. (as an adjective, with words for units of time) The next: săptămâna cealaltă.^[2]
4. lumea cealaltă: the other world, the afterlife.^[4]

Related words

• alalt
• alt
• cel
• alaltăieri
• cestălalt
• ălălalt

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 168
3. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. célălalt
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 355
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. alt
6. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. celălalt
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 33
8. ^ a b 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. alalt