crede

Forms

crede (third-person singular present crede, past participle crezut) third conjugation^[1] Regional speech has the first person crez and the subjunctive să crează; the imperative is crede or crezi.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin crēdō (“to believe, entrust”), a verb found throughout the Romance languages.^{[3][4][2][1][5]} The DÉRom reconstructs the Proto-Romance verb with the senses “to hold true”, “to trust” and “to entrust”.^[6] De Vaan traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *ḱred-dʰeh₁- (“to place (in?) the heart”), hence “to believe”.^[7]

The verb survives in Aromanian cred and Istro-Romanian credu.^[4][3][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian credere, Occitan creire, French croire, Spanish creer and Portuguese crer.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and the DÉRom date the first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of about 1500;^[3][6][9][2] Tiktin and MDA2 cite the Codicele Voronețean.^[3][6][9][2] The old language also used it for “to entrust something to someone”, a sense now obsolete.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “to entrust, hand over” is found in old Moldavian texts, among them Cantemir's.^[10][2] The modern senses are “to be convinced of”, “to think, suppose”, “to trust” and “to believe in God”; reflexively, a se crede “to think highly of oneself”.^[11][4]

Romanian formed a large family from the verb: crezut about 1500, crezător “believing, credulous” in 1560, încrede “to trust” in 1581, crezare in 1814 (now in a da crezare “to believe”) and încredere “trust” in 1818.^[3] crez “creed” (1839) continues the old first person singular, modelled on Latin credo;^[3] DEX sees a back-formation.^[3] credință “faith” is a separate inheritance, from Vulgar Latin *crēdentia.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki; credință and crezut in the same text.^[3]
• 16th century – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[9][2]
• 1560 – crezător in the Codex Bratul.^[3]
• 1581 – încrede in Coresi.^[3]
• 1648 – credeu “the Creed” in Fogarasi's catechism.^[3]
• 1814 – crezare.^[3]
• 1818 – încredere “trust”.^[3]
• 1839 – crez “creed” in Heliade-Rădulescu.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To believe, be convinced of the truth of something: Cred tot ce mi-ai spus.;^[11][2] Cred și eu! “no wonder!”^[11][2]
2. (intransitive) To believe someone, understand someone's pain: nu-i vine să creadă “he can't believe it”.^[11]
3. To think, suppose, consider: Cred că va ploua.;^[11] (reflexive) to think too much of oneself.^[11]
4. (intransitive, with în) To trust, rely on someone or something.^[11]
5. (intransitive) To believe in God; to hold a religious faith.^[11]
6. (obsolete) To entrust something to someone.^[2][10]

Word family

• crez
• crezare
• încrede
• încredere
• crezut

Related words

• Aromanian cred
• Latin crēdō

References

1. ^ a b c 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, 542
3. ^ 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. crede
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. crede
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2307
6. ^ a b c Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 309
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. crede
10. ^ a b c Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 114
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. 247