dacă

Etymology

It is a Romanian compound, from Romanian de + ca (“when, as”), first stressed on its second part.^[2] DELR follows Meyer-Lübke, Tiktin, Drăganu and the DA in this view, and explains that the conjunction was at first temporal, while conditions were expressed with să and de.^[2] Drăganu took the first part in its sense “from the moment”, from Latin dē, and the second, “as, when”, from quam.^[3]

Philippide, Ciorănescu, DEX and DLR instead analyse it as the same first part followed by că “that”.^[2][4] DELR finds this difficult, because that conjunction had no temporal sense and the oldest forms of the 16th century end in ⟨-ca⟩; the final ⟨ă⟩ can come from the closing of an unstressed final vowel.^[2] Wiktionary derives it from an earlier form deacă, probably from the same Latin preposition and quod.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1551–1553, the form deca in a Slavonic–Romanian Gospel.^[2] The early records are temporal, “when, after, as soon as”: the Codicele Voronețean renders Acts with deca where Coresi and the later Bibles use ca, cum or când.^[3][2] The 16th-century psalters have deaca, deca and dică in Psalm 67:14.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the temporal sense prevailed; the conditional “if” became the main sense later, and DEX still lists the temporal use, with a conditional or causal shade, as its third sense.^[2][4] From the conditional came causal, concessive and optative uses, and the conjunction also introduces indirect questions, “whether”.^[4][3]

In Moldavia and Transylvania an emphatic dacă “but, indeed; of course” is recorded from 1875;^[2][7] DELR derives it from da “but” and an exclamative că.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – deca in a Slavonic–Romanian Gospel, the first record.^[2]
• c. 1563–1583 – deca “when” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]
• 1564 – a fragment of a deacon's prayer book printed by Coresi, MDA2's first record.^[8]
• 1570 – deaca in Coresi's Psalter.^[5]
• 1875 – the emphatic dacă “but, indeed” in Alecsandri.^[2]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. if: introduces a condition, “in case, supposing that”: Dacă plouă, rămânem acasă.^[4][1]
2. Introduces a wish: “if only”.^[4]
3. Introduces a time clause, often with a conditional or causal shade: when, as soon as, after.^[4][2]
4. Introduces a cause: since, because.^[4]
5. Introduces a concession: although, even if.^[4][3]
6. Introduces an indirect question: whether: Nu știu dacă vine.^[4][1]
7. (adverbial) Hardly, barely.^[4]
8. (Moldavia, Transylvania; emphatic) But, indeed, of course;^[2][7] dacă doar “why, of course”.^[2][7]

Related words

• de
• ca
• că

Usage notes

The phrase las' dacă means “certainly not”, or, with a negative, “there is no doubt that”.^[4] A separate noun dacă, the feminine of dac “Dacian”, means “Dacian woman” and, mostly with the article, daca “the Dacian language”;^[9][1] NODEX derives it from Latin Dacus.^[9][1]

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 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. dacă
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. dacă
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 269
5. ^ 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 67:14
6. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dacă
7. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 7
8. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 593
9. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. dacă