deja

Forms

deja^[1] The first record spells it degiia: „Ranele degiia înveninate” “wounds already poisoned”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French déjà (“already”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} Ciorănescu calls it a Gallicism.^[4] The French adverb grew out of the phrase Old French des ja, from des (“right after”) and ja (“now, then”), the latter from Latin iam (“now, already”);^[3][7] DELR traces the first part probably to Latin dē with ex.^[3][7] DELR explains the old spelling ⟨degiia⟩ as a Romanianised form, also influenced by Italian già and di già.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is of 1794, in a calendar printed in Vienna, with the spelling degiia and the modern sense “already”.^[3][6][2]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed that of the French word: by this (or that) moment, already.^[5][4] The DLR quotes it in 19th-century writers such as Barasch, Filimon, Maiorescu and Eminescu.^[2] Laurian and Massim (1871) gave it with the Latin equivalents jam and jamjam.^[8] Scriban (1939) marked it as a neologism and set beside it the native turn with și: a și venit “he has already come” for a venit deja.^[9]

Regional speech has dăjá.^[6] The French phrase déjà vu was taken over in 1932 (Rebreanu), and the press of the 1970s coined deja-spus “the already said” on its model.^[3][10]

Timeline

• 1794 – degiia in a calendar printed in Vienna, the first record.^[3][6]
• 1871 – in Laurian and Massim's dictionary.^[8]
• 1932 – déjà vu in Rebreanu.^[3]
• 1974 – deja-spus “the already said” in the literary press.^[10]

Meanings

Adverb

1. already: by this moment, from now on: E deja târziu. “It is already late.”^[5][11][1]
2. By that moment, from then on; even then: Îl cunoșteam deja din școală. “I already knew him from school.”^[5][6]

Related words

• French déjà

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. deja
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. deja
4. ^ a b c 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. deja
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 284
6. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 633
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Laurian, A. T.; Massim, I. C. (1871–1876), Dictionariulu limbei romane, 2 vols., Bucuresci: Noua Typographia a Laboratoriloru Romani, p. s.v. deja
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 399
10. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. deja
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. deja