doi

Forms

doi m (feminine and neuter două)^[1] Old texts spell the feminine doao, doauă, doo or douo.^[2][3] Ureche writes doao: „Iaste făcută ţara den doao limbi” “the country is made up of two peoples”.^[4] Neculce has doo: „că-l scoses-în doo rânduri să-i taie capul” “for he had twice taken him out to cut off his head”.^[4] A rare plural doiuri is used for the figure.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *duī (“two”), the masculine remade from Classical duo on the model of the ordinary plural ending -ī, with the feminine duae behind ⟨două⟩.^[2][5][3][1] DELR, after Candrea and Densusianu, explains the vowel ⟨o⟩ instead of ⟨u⟩ by a contraction of the accusative duōs to *dos.^[2] The Latin numeral goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁.^[1][6]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian doi, Megleno-Romanian doi and Istro-Romanian doi, each with its own feminine.^{[2][5][7][8][9]} The same remade masculine is found in Old French dui, the nominative beside deus, and in old Italian dui; other Romance cognates are Italian due, French deux and Spanish dos.^{[1][5][10][11]}

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, copied about 1500–1520, where the ordinal al doile “the second” also appears.^[2] Tiktin's first record is the Codicele Voronețean (16th century), at Acts 19:10.^[12] A Romanian rule of 1561–1562 already uses both genders: „Muiarea ceaea ce va zăcea cu doi frați sau bărbatul cu douo surori” “the woman who lies with two brothers, or the man with two sisters”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Besides counting, the numeral marks a small, vague number, as in două vorbe “a few words”, and is used as an ordinal (tomul doi “volume two”) and as a noun for the figure 2, a playing card or a mark.^[3][13][2] Tiktin notes that in counting aloud Romanians say unul, doi, trei or una, două, trei according to the gender of the things they have in mind.^[12]

Romanian built a large family on the word.^[2] Doisprezece “twelve” is formed with spre “upon” and zece, and douăzeci “twenty” with the feminine două and zeci.^[2] The verb îndoi first meant “to double” and also came to mean “to bend” and “to doubt”, and gave îndoială “doubt”.^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – doi and the ordinal al doile in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2]
• 1551–1553 – doisprezece “twelve” in a Slavonic–Romanian Gospel.^[2]
• 1561 – doaozeci “twenty” in the Codex Bratul.^[2]
• 1563–1583 – îndoi “to double” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[2]
• 1651 – îndoială “doubt” in the Alba Iulia Psalter.^[2]
• 1837 – doime “a pair; a half” in Anton Pann.^[2]
• 1909 – dedoi, a folk dance in pairs.^[2]

Meanings

Numeral

1. two: the number between one and three, written 2 or II: Am cumpărat două pâini și doi castraveți.^[13][3][1]
2. (before a noun, with vreo) a few, some: vreo doi oameni “a couple of people”.^[13][12]
3. (with ordinal value) the second: capitolul doi “chapter two”.^[13]
4. (as a noun) the figure 2; an object marked with it, such as a playing card or a school mark.^[13][14][2]

Word family

• doilea
• doisprezece
• douăzeci
• doime
• îndoi
• îndoială
• îndoielnic
• dezdoi
• dedoi

Related words

• trei
• Aromanian doi
• Latin duo

Usage notes

Două is used with feminine and neuter nouns: doi băieți, două fete, două scaune.^[1][13] Common phrases are în două or pe din două “in two, in halves”, la doi pași “very close by” and nici una, nici două “all of a sudden, without further ado”.^[13][3]

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 h i j k l m n o p q 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. doi
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 740
4. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. doi
5. ^ a b c d 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. doi
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 410
8. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 227
9. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
10. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 47
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2798
12. ^ 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. doi
13. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 326
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. doi