despre

Forms

despre (+accusative)^[1] Old texts also have dăspre: „să ivi dăspre Focşani un Ilie Lepuşneanul” “an Ilie Lepușneanul appeared from the direction of Focșani” (1782).^[2] dispre: „Omul dispre tot pământul” “man from all over the earth” (1784).^[2] DLR also records the old forms desprea and the rare despe.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian de + spre, from the prepositions de “of, from” and spre “towards, on”.^{[3][4][5][6][2][1]} Ciorănescu lists it among the compounds of the second part.^[7] That preposition comes from Latin super (“over, on”).^[3][7] Wiktionary compares the Latin sequence of dē and that word, and Scriban had derived the word from the same Latin sequence, “from above”.^[1][8]

DELR notes that in the oldest texts the sequence ⟨de spre⟩ can often still be read as a sequence of two prepositions, although editors print it joined: the first preposition marks the starting point or an attribute, and the second introduces a place.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The sequence already occurs in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, at Psalm 1.^[9] DELR, which reads such early cases as de + spre, dates the preposition from Coresi's Tâlcul evangheliilor of 1567–1568.^[3] The Codicele Voronețean has it in the sense “from, of”: „Rrugămu-nă noi şi ceia despre locu se nu iasă întru Ierusalim” “we and those of the place begged him not to go up to Jerusalem”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The old senses were spatial and temporal: “from the direction of, towards, near”, as in despre Prut “towards the Prut” and despre ziuă “towards daybreak”.^[6][2][3] From “on the side of” came the use for the agent or party, “on someone's part”: Miron Costin writes of peace terms „despre Schindir Pașa” “on the part of Schindir Pasha”.^[6][4] Old texts also used it for “against” and to mark separation after verbs such as a se feri “to beware of”.^[3][5]

The sense “about, concerning”, now the main one, is the modern literary use: a vorbi despre ceva “to speak about something”.^[6][5] Popular speech keeps the side sense with kinship terms, despre tată “on the father's side”.^[6][5][3]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – despre in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, where DELR reads such sequences as de + spre.^[9][3]
• 1567-1568 – the preposition in Coresi's Tâlcul evangheliilor, DELR's first record.^[3]
• c. 1563-1583 – ceia despre locu “those of the place” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[2][6]
• 1649 – despre in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• 1782 – the old form dăspre in a dated document.^[2]

Meanings

Preposition

1. about, concerning, regarding: O carte despre istoria orașului. “A book about the history of the town.”^[5][4][1]
2. (popular, with kinship terms) On the side of: unchi despre mamă “maternal uncle”.^[5][3]
3. From the direction of;^[5][3] (popular) towards.^[5][3]
4. (of time) Towards, near: despre ziuă “towards daybreak”.^[5][6]
5. Facing, on the side towards: camera despre stradă “the room on the street side”.^[5]
6. (obsolete) Against, upon.^[5][3]
7. (obsolete, introducing the agent) By, on the part of.^[5][3]

Related words

• de
• spre
• dinspre
• înspre

Usage notes

Cât despre means “as for, as regards”: cât despre mine “as for me”.^[6][8] Scriban recommended despre stil “about style” over asupra stilului, which copies French sur.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. despre
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. despre
4. ^ 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, 673
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 301
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. despre
7. ^ a b 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. spre
8. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 413
9. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 1:4
10. ^ 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. despre