dator

Forms

dator m or n (feminine singular datoare, masculine plural datori, feminine/neuter plural datoare)^[1] Old forms are deatoriu, deator, detor, dător, datur and adetor, and a regional one is ditor.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *dēbitōrius, a form standing for Latin dēbitor (“debtor”).^{[2][4][3][5][6][1]} The Latin noun is formed on dēbeō (“to owe”), which DELR takes from dē- and habeō (“to have”).^[2] The regular outcome was detor: DELR explains the vowel of dator by confusion with an old homonym meaning “giver”, formed on da “to give”, and Ciorănescu and DEX 2009 likewise see the influence of that verb.^[2][4][5]

It survives in Aromanian as dãtor.^[4][7][1] The Romance cognates include Occitan deudor, Spanish deudor and Portuguese devedor.^[4][8] Ciorănescu notes that Albanian dëtürë (“debt”) could come from Romanian.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is deatoriu in the Codex Bratul of 1559–1560, meaning “owing”.^[2] Tiktin cites the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 108:11), and MDA2's first record is Coresi's homily book of 1581.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant owing money, then owing anything: being bound, by law, agreement or conscience, to do something, and being indebted to someone for a kindness, hence grateful.^[2][5][3] The old language also used it as a noun, “debtor”: a psalter of 1680 has cum și noi iertăm datorilor noștri “as we forgive our debtors”.^[6] MDA2 also records the noun in the old sense “debt” and regionally as “debtor”.^[3]

The family is older than the adjective in the record: datorie “debt; duty” is found in 1527–1538 and datornic “debtor” in 1551–1553.^[2] The verb datora appears around 1800 with Micu, and datorită “thanks to”, the feminine participle of datori, with Eminescu in 1878.^[2]

Timeline

• 1527–1538 – datorie “debt” in a glossary of Slavonic–Romanian documents.^[2]
• 1551–1553 – datornic “debtor” in a Slavonic–Romanian Gospel.^[2]
• 1559–1560 – deatoriu in the Codex Bratul, the first record of the adjective.^[2]
• 1573–1578 – deatoriu “giver”, the homonym, in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2]
• 1581 – dator in Coresi's homily book.^[3]
• 1592–1604 – îndatora “to oblige”.^[2]
• 1680 – datorilor “debtors” in a psalter.^[6]
• 1780–1801 – the verb datora in Micu's dictionary.^[2]
• 1878 – datorită “thanks to” in Eminescu.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Owing someone money, indebted.^[5][1] Dator vândut means deep in debt, and a scoate pe cineva dator means to claim from someone a sum he does not owe.^[5][3][1]
2. Indebted to someone for a service or help, and so grateful.^[5][3]
3. obliged, morally, by law or by agreement, to do something: Ești dator să-ți ajuți fratele.^[5][3]

Noun

1. (obsolete, regional) A debtor.^[3][6]

Word family

• datora
• datoraș
• datorită
• datorie
• datorință
• datornic
• datornicesc
• datornicește
• îndatora
• îndatorire
• îndatoritor
• îndatori

Related words

• Aromanian dãtor
• Latin dēbitor
• debitor

Usage notes

A nu rămâne dator “not to stay in debt” is said of someone who answers back promptly or gets even.^[3]

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 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. dator
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 602
4. ^ a b c d e 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. dator
5. ^ 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. 271
6. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dator
7. ^ 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, 75
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2492