cine

Forms

cine (genitive/dative cui)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *quene, from Latin quem, the accusative of quī (“who”).^[2][3][1][4] In this view the monosyllable ⟨quem⟩ became *quen and took a final vowel, as Latin mel gave miere.^[2][5] The genitive-dative cui continues the Latin dative cui.^[2][6] Aromanian has ține;^[2][7] DELR gives the Istro-Romanian form as cire.^[2][7] Wiktionary compares Sardinian chíne and Spanish quien.^[1]

Among other explanations, Ciorănescu takes ⟨quem⟩ with an added ⟨-ne⟩, as in Sardinian kini and in Romanian mine and tine.^[6] Philippide and Pascu derived it from quisne, and Byhan from ⟨quem⟩ or quis with the question particle -ne;^[2][7] DELR finds these less likely.^[2][7][6] Pușcariu compared the ⟨-ne⟩ of Albanian unë (“I”) and tinë (“you”), a non-Latin element also found in southern Italy.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the word to about 1500, with the old variant cinre.^[2] The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki writes cire, and so do the Voroneț and Scheiană psalters, while Coresi prints cine.^[9][10] MDA2's first record is the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583).^[11]

Semantic evolution

Besides the question “who?” the old language used cine as an indefinite pronoun, “each one”, and repeated, “one … another”.^[2][6] The relative use “he who” is found in proverbs: Cine minte, și fură “who lies, also steals”.^[12][3] In phrases such as n-are cine it comes close to “nobody”.^[6]

Romanian built a series of indefinite pronouns on it: cineva “somebody”, altcineva “somebody else” (1581), oricine and fiecine “anyone, everyone”, and the old cinescu “each one”.^[2][6]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – cire and cinre in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2][9]
• c. 1563–1583 – cine and cinescu “each one” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[11][2]
• 1570 – cine in Coresi's Psalter.^[10]
• 1581 – altcineva “somebody else” in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[2]
• 1688 – altcinevași in the Bucharest Bible.^[2]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (interrogative) who: cine a sunat? “who rang?”;^[3][1] cine știe! “who knows!”; also “what kind of person”.^[3][1]
2. (relative) He who, the one who: cine se scoală devreme… “whoever gets up early…”;^[3] n-are cine “there is nobody to”.^[3][6]
3. (indefinite, dated) everyone, anyone.^[3][2]

Word family

• altcineva
• cinescu
• cineși
• cineva
• fiecine
• fieștecine
• oarecine
• oricine

Related words

• cui
• Aromanian ține

Usage notes

The genitive-dative is cui and the accusative takes pe: pe cine.^[6] Cui is also used on its own for “whose”: Eminescu's a cui-s, mamă? “whose am I, mother?”.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. cine
3. ^ 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. 184
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6953
5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 61
6. ^ 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. cine
7. ^ a b c d 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
8. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 31
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 9:10
10. ^ 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 89:13
11. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 398
12. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cine