deveni

Forms

deveni (third-person singular present devine, past participle devenit, third-person subjunctive devină), 4th conjugation^[1] It is conjugated like veni, and popular speech has the first person deviu beside devin.^[2][3] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 enters it under the long infinitive devenire, with the gloss “to become what one was not, to take another form”.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French devenir (“to become”), the source that DEX, DELR, the DLR, Tiktin and the neologism dictionaries name.^{[5][6][7][2][8]} According to MDA2 and Wiktionary it is also borrowed from Latin dēveniō, and Tiktin compares Italian divenire.^[3][1][2] Ciorănescu describes it as a rendering of the French verb through Romanian veni, and Tiktin notes that it is conjugated like that verb.^[9][2]

The French verb is an early loan from the same Latin verb, which meant “to come to, arrive at” and in Late Latin came to mean “to become”.^[10][6] The Latin verb is formed from dē and veniō (“to come”).^[6][1] DELR explains the old Moldavian senses “to result, to come from” by the influence of the simple verb and perhaps of German abkommen.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is in the writings of Antim Ivireanul, which Wiktionary dates to about 1710.^[3][1] DELR and Tiktin date the word to 1794, in the Vienna calendar, where it has the sense “to become, to pass from one state to another”.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Beside “to become”, the old language of Moldavia used the verb for “to result, to come from”; this sense gave devenitor “descendant”, recorded in 1837.^[6] The word spread in the 19th century as one of the French verbs of the modern literary language: the DLR's quotations begin with Heliade, who wrote that Romanian would “become the language of Romania's future”.^[7] Tiktin records it in place of veni “to come”: „Lucrul deveni la luptă între cei doi frați” “it came to a fight between the two brothers”.^[2] The familiar phrase cum devine cazul? asks how things stand.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1710 – the first record, in Antim Ivireanul's writings.^[3][1]
• 1794 – in the Vienna calendar, “to become”.^[6][2]
• 1837 – the derivative deviitor “descendant”, later devenitor (1866).^[6]
• 1848 – the long infinitive devenire in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[4]
• 1862 – Pontbriant glosses it with French devenir and arriver.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To turn into, to be transformed into; to take the form or look of something else.^[5]
2. To become, to get to be: A devenit medic.^[5][3]
3. To fare, to turn out: Ce a devenit prietenul tău? “what has become of your friend?”^[3][12]
4. (familiar, in phrases) Cum devine cazul or cum devine chestia: how do things stand, what has happened?^[5]
5. (obsolete or regional) To reach a place.^[1][3]

Word family

• devenitor

Related words

• veni
• French devenir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. deveni
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 685
4. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. devenire
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 305
6. ^ 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. deveni
7. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. deveni
8. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. deveni
9. ^ 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. deveni
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. devenir
11. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 217
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 90