deosebit

Forms

deosebit m or n (feminine singular deosebită, masculine plural deosebiți, feminine/neuter plural deosebite)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian deosebi + -it, the participle of the verb used as an adjective and an adverb.^[2][3][4][1] The verb, “to separate; to tell apart”, is explained in two ways.^[5][2] DELR forms it on an old adverb of the same form, “apart”, made of de and the adverb osebi “apart”, which is from Old Church Slavonic особь (osobĭ), with its ⟨e⟩ after the Romanian verb of the same form, from осебити (osebiti, “to separate”), or directly from a Slavonic form with ⟨e⟩; the Slavonic adverb is made of о (o, “about, at”) and the locative себѣ (sebě, “oneself”).^[5] MDA2 and Wiktionary form the verb directly from the preposition and the verb “to separate”, from Old Church Slavonic особити (osobiti).^[2][1] Ciorănescu takes the adverb from the Slavonic adverb and the verb from the reflexive Slavonic verb, “to live alone, apart”.^[6] Tiktin traces the adverb to the Old Church Slavonic phrase “for oneself”.^[7]

The older osebit, formed in the same way on the verb, is recorded from 1581.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Varlaam's Cazania of 1643;^[4][5] DELR dates the adjective and adverb to 1694.^[4][5] The early sense was “separate, apart”: the Bible of 1688 tells how the kings camped „deosebit” “apart” in the field.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From “separate” the word passed to “different, distinct” and then to “out of the ordinary, special; distinguished”.^[3][5] DELR records the plural placed before the noun, “various, diverse”, as old.^[5] The adverb, followed by de, became an intensifier, deosebit de frumos “exceptionally beautiful”, and kept an older sense, deosebit de “apart from, besides”, which Bălcescu uses.^[3][8][4] In Moldovan usage the adverb also means “separately, on the side”.^[9] In the press of the early 1990s plată deosebită “special payment” meant payment in foreign currency.^[10]

Timeline

• 1643 – deosebit in Varlaam's Cazania.^[4]
• 1688 – deosebit “apart” in the Bucharest Bible.^[4]
• 1694 – the adjective and adverb in DELR's first record.^[5]
• 1698 – the noun deosebire “difference” in Cantemir.^[5]
• 1815 – îndeosebi “especially” in Budai-Deleanu.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. different, distinct, not like another.^[3][2][1]
2. (in the plural, before the noun) various, diverse: deosebite obiceiuri “various customs”.^[3][2]
3. Out of the ordinary, special, unusual; distinguished, remarkable: o grijă deosebită “special care”.^[3][2]
4. (dated) separate, apart.^[3][1]

Adverb

1. (with de) Very, exceptionally: deosebit de greu “exceptionally hard”.^[3][2]
2. (deosebit de) besides, apart from.^[3][2]

Related words

• osebit
• deosebi
• deosebire
• îndeosebi
• osebi

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 Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 644
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 290
4. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. deosebit
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. deosebi
6. ^ 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. osebi
7. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. deosebi
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 51
9. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 90
10. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. deosebit