devreme

Forms

devreme (adverb)^[1] Old texts spell it devreame: „încă prea devreame iaste și nu-i vreame încă a mâna acasă oile” “it is still too early, and it is not yet time to drive the sheep home” (Genesis 29:7).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian de + vreme, the preposition with the noun “time”: literally “of time, in time”.^[4][5][3][1] vreme is from Old Church Slavonic врѣмѧ (vrěmę, “time”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the Palia of 1581–1582, in Genesis 29:7: „încă prea devreame iaste” “it is still too early”.^[2][3] MDA2 cites only the DEX of 1975, a much later record.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The adverb has kept its sense, “early, before or at the start of a given time”, since the 16th century;^[3] Dosoftei, Neculce and Creangă use it as today.^[3] With mai it means “earlier”, and with prea “too early”.^[3][7] The Lexicon of Buda (1825) also records it as an adjective, “early, ripening early”, and the DLRLC quotes an adjectival use from Alecsandri.^[8][7] Wiktionary adds the sense “soon, before long”.^[1]

Scriban recorded the conjunction devreme ce “since, given that”, and Șăineanu noted that the word is used of both morning and evening.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 1581–1582 – devreame in the Palia, the first record.^[2][3]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon of Buda, as an adverb and as an adjective “early”.^[8]
• 1939 – Scriban records the conjunction devreme ce “since”.^[9]

Meanings

Adverb

1. early: in good time, before or at the beginning of a set period: Ne-am sculat devreme ca să prindem trenul.^[4][3][1]
2. mai devreme: earlier;^[7][3] prea devreme: too early.^[7][3]
3. soon, before long.^[1]

Related words

• vreme
• târziu

Usage notes

Devreme ce “since, seeing that” is a dated conjunction.^[9] The opposite is târziu, as in the folk line nici devreme, nici târziu.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. devreme
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. devreme
4. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 305
5. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 687
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. vreme
7. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 91
8. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 188
9. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 417
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 207