deoarece

Forms

deoarece (conjunction)^[1] Petru Maior often writes deoarăce: „deoarăce și lor bine le prindea românii aceii” “since those Romanians were useful to them too”.^[2][3] Șincai has the reversed order de ce oară: „vedea că de ce oară așa de mare oaste turcească n-au putut străbate în Ungaria” “he saw that since so great a Turkish army had not been able to break into Hungary”.^[2]

Etymology

It is a compound from Romanian de + oare + ce, from the preposition, the particle and the relative pronoun, in the analysis of DEX, MDA2, the DLR and Wiktionary.^[4][5][2][1] Tiktin treats it under oare, which he derives from Vulgar Latin *volet (“he wants”), a popular form for Classical vult.^[6][7]

DELR prefers from Romanian de + oară + ce, with oară “time, moment”, from Latin hōra, and explains the ⟨e⟩ for ⟨ă⟩ as assimilation to the final vowel.^[3][8] It compares other phrases of time that took on a causal sense, de vreme ce and din moment ce, French puisque, English since and German weil, from Middle High German wīle (“while”); this view goes back to Drăganu in 1922–1923 and to Mihăescu.^[3] Dosoftei has a similar phrase, ⟨de oară că⟩ “since”.^[3] Șăineanu read it as “for some reason”, from oarecare.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

eRomLex lists one occurrence in Lex.St., a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of about 1660–1670.^[10] The DLR's oldest quotation is from Antim Ivireanul, who writes that something “must seem useful to us, since in the holy churches we are used to reading in Slavonic”.^[2] DELR dates the word to 1810–1811, in the form deoarăce in the writings of the Transylvanian School.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word has always been a causal conjunction, introducing the reason for what the main clause says.^[2][4] In the early 19th century it was frequent in Petru Maior and the other Transylvanian scholars, often as deoarăce or written de oară ce, and Șincai has the variant deceoară.^[3] Șăineanu noted a slightly emphatic shade beside fiindcă.^[9] Wiktionary marks it as formal today.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1660–1670 – one occurrence in the lexicon Lex.St.^[10]
• 1810–1811 – deoarăce in the writings of the Transylvanian School, DELR's first record.^[3]
• 1812 – de ce oară (deceoară) in Șincai's Hronica.^[3]
• 1892 – deoarece in Ispirescu's tales, MDA2's first record.^[5]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. because, since: introduces a clause of cause or the reason for an action: Rămânem acasă, deoarece plouă.^{[4][5][11][1]}

Related words

• de
• oare
• oară
• ce
• fiindcă
• deceoară

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. deoarece
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. deoarece
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 290
5. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 644
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. oare
7. ^ 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. oare
8. ^ 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. oară
9. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 198
10. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. deoarece
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. deoarece