cere

Forms

cere (third-person singular present cere, past participle cerut, third-person subjunctive ceară), 3rd conjugation^[1] The present first person had the regional forms ceriu, cei and ceu.^[2] The old simple perfect was cerșii, as in the Psaltirea Scheiană, and the old participle cerșit; the modern cerui and cerut are analogical forms that took over in the 19th century.^[3][4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quaerō (“to seek, look for; to ask”).^{[5][4][2][1][6]} The Latin verb's own origin is uncertain: Wiktionary reports Nussbaum's and de Vaan's derivation from Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₂- (“to acquire”).^[1]

The old perfect and participle (see Forms) continue quaesīvī and quaesītus, with an /r/ taken from the present stem.^[4][5][1] On that perfect Romanian built a new present, and with it the separate verb cerși “to beg”.^[4][5][7]

The word survives in all four branches of Romanian: Aromanian tser, Megleno-Romanian țę́riri and Istro-Romanian cę́re.^[5][4] Its Romance cognates include Italian chiedere, Old French querre, Spanish querer and Portuguese querer, the last two meaning “to want”.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to about 1500, and the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki has the form cer (Psalm 24).^[5][8] MDA2 dates it to the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583) and Tiktin to the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense “to seek” survived in the old language: MDA2 and DELR record cere as “to look for, try to find, try”.^[2][5] The sense “to ask for, request” became the main one, with “to beg for alms”, “to ask for a girl in marriage”, “to claim as of right” and, of things, “to require”.^[4][10][9]

The noun cerere “request” is as old as the verb, and DER calls cerință “requirement” a literary formation of the 19th century;^[4] DELR dates it to 1868.^[5][4] The old perfect forms gave cerși “to beg”, from 1581, and cerșetor “beggar”.^[5][4]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – the first record: cer in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[5][8]
• c. 1500 – cerere “request” and cerșetor “beggar”.^[5]
• c. 1563–1583 – cere in the Codicele Voronețean.^[2]
• c. 1566 – cerșitură “request”.^[5]
• 1574 – cerșut “request, begging”.^[5]
• 1581 – the verb cerși “to beg”.^[5]
• 1714 – the noun cerut “asking”.^[5]
• 1868 – cerință “requirement”.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To ask for, to request: to turn to someone in order to obtain something;^[10][2][1] a cere voie “to ask permission”.^[10][2][1]
2. To ask for a girl's hand, to propose marriage.^[10]
3. To beg for alms; compare cerși.^[10][4]
4. To demand or claim as of right;^[10][2] a cere socoteală “to call to account”.^[10][2]
5. Of things, to require, to make necessary.^[10][9]
6. To want, to desire.^[10]
7. (reflexive) To be in demand.^[10][4]
8. (obsolete) To seek, to look for.^[2][4]

Word family

• cerător
• cerere
• cerință
• cerșetor
• cerșetoresc
• cerșetori
• cerșetorie
• cerși
• cerșit

Related words

• Aromanian tser
• Latin quaerō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 364
3. ^ Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 267
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. cere
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. cere
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6923
7. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
8. ^ 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 24:11
9. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cere
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 172