dovedi

Forms

dovedi (third-person singular present dovedește, past participle dovedit) 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic довести (dovesti), first person singular доведѫ (dovedǫ), “to lead or bring somewhere; to demonstrate”, formed from до- (do-) and вести (vesti, “to lead”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Ciorănescu follows Miklosich, Cihac and Conev and compares Bulgarian forms meaning “to lead, led”.^[3] MDA2 gives the same Slavonic verb.^[7]

Wiktionary instead takes it from довѣдѣти (dověděti), with the prefix in the sense “completely”, and вѣдѣти (věděti, “to know”), from Proto-Slavic *věděti.^[1]

The noun dovadă “proof” is a back-formation from the verb for Tiktin, CADE, DEX and the DLR;^[2][3][8] Conev and Scriban take it from a Slavonic noun; compare Bulgarian довод (dovod, “proof”).^[2][3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1632, in Eustratie's Pravila;^[5][2][7] DELR's first record is Varlaam's Cazania of 1643, and MDA2's a text of before 1650.^[5][2][7] Varlaam uses it in the sense “to show to be true”, of proving „care direptate spune prorocul” “what righteousness the prophet speaks”.^[9] The chronicler Simion Dascălul wanted „să pociu dovedi acest lucru” “to be able to prove this matter” by reading the sources.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Besides “to prove, demonstrate”, the old language had “to convict someone of a fault”: the 1688 Bible says Daniel „îi dovedi pre ei” “convicted them” out of their own mouths.^[5] It also meant “to discover, find out”, and as a reflexive “to be found, exist” and “to appear before someone”.^[2] In popular use the verb took the senses “to overcome, defeat” and “to cope with, get through a task”: Tiktin quotes Bălcescu on a battle in which „când unii, când alții dovedeau” “now one side, now the other prevailed”, and Gane on peasants who could not manage to gather all the grain.^[5][4] Of plants it can mean “to overgrow, choke”: clover should not „să dovedească pe pâne” “overgrow the grain”.^[5]

Derivatives appear from the 17th century: dovadă in Miron Costin (1687–1691), dovedeală in the 1688 Bible, doveditor in Cantemir in 1705.^[2]

Timeline

• 1632 – the first record, in Eustratie's Pravila.^[5]
• 1643 – Varlaam's Cazania.^[2][9]
• before 1650 – dovedi “to prove” in a text in Gaster's chrestomathy.^[7]
• 1687–1691 – dovadă “proof” in Miron Costin.^[2]
• 1688 – dovedeală in the Bucharest Bible.^[2]
• 1705 – doveditor in Cantemir.^[2]
• 1726–1729 – dovadnic “witness”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To prove, to demonstrate with evidence, arguments or testimony: a dovedit că avea dreptate “he proved he was right”.^[4][7]
2. (transitive and reflexive) To show oneself, to turn out to be in a certain way.^[4][7]
3. (transitive, popular) To defeat, to overcome; to outdo.^[4][7]
4. (transitive and intransitive, popular) To cope with, to get through or finish a task.^[4][7]

Word family

• dovadă
• dovedeală
• doveditor
• nedovedit
• dovadnic

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. dovedi
3. ^ 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. dovedi
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 329
5. ^ 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. dovedi
6. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
7. ^ 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, 749
8. ^ a b Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 404
9. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dovedi