cheltui

Forms

cheltui (third-person singular present cheltuiește or cheltuie, past participle cheltuit), 4th conjugation^[1] Old variants are chieltui and chiltui.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Hungarian költ (“to spend”), given by most dictionaries in the infinitive költeni.^{[3][4][5][6][2][1]} That verb is formed from Hungarian kel (“to rise, to go”) + -t (“causative suffix”); the senses “to spend time” and “to spend money” are recorded from the 14th century.^[7][8][1]

Because the Hungarian verb also passed into neighbouring Slavic languages, Pușcariu and Drăganu supposed a Slavic intermediary;^[5] Tamás finds this view neither historically nor linguistically founded.^[5] Ciorănescu notes the reverse loan: the Ruthenian verb for “to spend” comes from Romanian.^[4] A related loan is chelșug “expense”, from költség.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean, the 16th-century Romanian text of Acts and the Epistles (c. 1563–1583); Tiktin cites it from James 4:3.^[2][3][9] The sense there is “to spend, to use up”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is to pay out money, which extended to wasting money and to using up time, strength or energy.^[6][2] The old chronicles use it of time: au cheltuit boierii câteva zile acolo “the boyars spent a few days there”.^[10] The reflexive a se cheltui meant to bear expenses or to support oneself, and later, as a French-style use, to spend one's strength.^[9][11] In Transylvania the verb also meant “to sell”, and a regional, ironic use is “to marry off” a daughter.^[4][2]

The proverb anevoie se câștigă, ușor se cheltuiește “hard earned, easily spent” is recorded by Tiktin and the CADE.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 1432–1437 – chelșug “expense”, the related loan from Hungarian.^[3]
• c. 1563–1583 – cheltui in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[2][3]
• 1581 – cheltuială “expense”.^[3]
• 1649 – cheltuiesc in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible, for example Luke 10:35.^[13]
• 1691 – cheltuitor “spendthrift”.^[3]
• 1826 – cheltuielnic “wasteful”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To spend money on something, to pay for something or to help someone;^[6][2] (pejorative) to waste money.^[6][2]
2. To use up energy, time or other resources.^[6][11]
3. (Transylvania, old) To sell.^[4][2]
4. (reflexive) To go to great expense for something.^[2][9]

Word family

• chelșug
• cheltuială
• cheltuielnic
• cheltuios
• cheltuit
• cheltuitor

Related words

• Hungarian költ

Usage notes

The present is cheltuiesc, cheltuiește;^[2][6] Transylvania and colloquial speech also have cheltui, cheltuie.^[2][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 372
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. cheltui
4. ^ a b c d 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. cheltui
5. ^ a b c Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 196
6. ^ 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. 176
7. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó
8. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu, p. s.v. költ
9. ^ 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. cheltui
10. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. cheltui
11. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 402
12. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition)