deda

Forms

a se deda (first-person singular present mă dedau, third-person singular se dedă, past participle dedat); first conjugation, conjugated like da.^[1][2]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[3] Most scholars take it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *dēdāre (“to give oneself up”), the Latin dēdō (“to give up, surrender”) moved early into the first conjugation after the simple verb da; this is the view of Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu, the REW and Rosetti, and of DELR.^[4][3][5][2] Candrea and Densusianu reject the neologism view because the verb is already in Dosoftei, and explain the Romanian meaning from the reflexive use of the Latin verb, “to give oneself up to something”.^[6] The Latin verb is formed dē- and dō (“to give”).^[7]

Tiktin and Scriban took it instead for a learned formation: Scriban from the simple verb, Tiktin from the Latin verb adapted to it, which is also the etymology of DEX and DLR.^{[2][4][8][9][10]} Ciorănescu notes that popular use is not attested for it, but finds that the sense “to get used to” favours inheritance.^[3] The Banat variant doda takes the prefix do- of the region's Slavic-prefixed verbs.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dosoftei's verse Psalter (Uniev, 1673), which warns that when people have grown used to living in peace, unwelcome news will reach them: „Când să vor dedea-să petrecând cu pace” “when they grow used to living in peace”.^[4][10] MDA2's year 1671 is the beginning of Dosoftei's term as metropolitan, from the title of the edition.^[11] Tiktin's first records are from Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1683) and a 1698 menaion, with the sense “to give oneself up”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the 17th to the 19th century the usual sense is “to grow used to, become accustomed to”, with cu: Șincai writes of a man used to the forests, dedat cu pădurile, and an 1832 newspaper of soldiers who had not had time to grow used to the climate.^[10] MDA2 also records the old senses “to venture”, “to be acclimatized” of plants and animals, and a regional transitive “to train” animals.^[11]

The sense “to devote oneself to”, with the dative or la, is the one Romanian shares with the Latin verb; from it came the pejorative “to give oneself to bad habits, take to vice”, which dictionaries give the synonym nărăvi.^[9][11][3] A 19th-century noun dedanie “habit” is recorded in 1825.^[4]

Timeline

• 1673 – dedea-să “they will grow used” in Dosoftei's verse Psalter, the first record.^[4][10]
• 1683 – in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[2]
• 1698 – “to give oneself up”, in a menaion.^[2]
• 1801 – dedáu in Klein's dictionary.^[12]
• 1825 – the noun dedanie “habit” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[4]
• 1862 – Pontbriant glosses it with French habituer, s'accoutumer.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To get accustomed to, grow familiar with, adapt to (something), with cu: În câteva luni s-a dedat cu clima de munte.^[9][11][1]
2. (reflexive) To devote oneself to something, with la or the dative.^[9][11][14]
3. (reflexive, pejorative) To take to bad deeds or habits, indulge in; to become addicted.^[9][15]

Word family

• dedanie

Related words

• da
• dedica
• Latin dēdō

Usage notes

In modern use the verb is reflexive, a se deda, and most often pejorative: a se deda la violențe “to resort to violence”.^[9][14] MDA2 also gives a regional present dedez.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. deda
3. ^ 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. deda
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. deda
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2511
6. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 472
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. dēdō
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 397
9. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 280
10. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. deda
11. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 622
12. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 348
13. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 188
14. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 35
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. deda