dragoste

Forms

dragoste f (plural dragoste)^[1] Bucovina has the variant draguste.^[2][3] The plural is dragoste, in the old and popular language also dragosti.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic драгость (dragostĭ).^{[2][5][4][3][1]} Scriban glosses the Slavonic word “dearness”.^[6] It comes from Proto-Slavic *dorgostь, made of *dorgъ (“dear”) and the abstract suffix *-ostь.^[1] Ciorănescu compares the Romanian adjective drag “dear”, and DELR lists the noun in the family of that word.^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1560–1561, in Coresi's Tetraevanghel;^[2][3] Tiktin cites the same print at John 13:35.^[2][3] The sense was “love”: a passage of Genesis quoted by Tiktin reads „Veseli pre ei și cu dragoste grăi cu ei” “he cheered them and spoke to them with love”.^[3] MDA2's first record is Coresi's homily book of 1581.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts it is the love of God and of one's neighbour: Gaster's glossary gives “love; charity, piety”, and Klein's dictionary of 1801 translates it with Latin amor, charitas and dilectio.^[8][9] A avea în dragoste meant “to be well disposed towards someone”, and a face dragoste “to do someone a kindness”.^[3][4] The sense “love between a man and a woman” gave a se da în dragoste cu cineva “to begin a love affair” and a face dragoste, which in folk poetry meant “to make love”.^[3] DELR and DEX add the concrete senses “beloved person” and “love affair”.^[2][5]

In 1871 Laurian and Massim judged it a foreign word, recognisable by its stress, and wanted it replaced by Romance words such as amor.^[10] The name passed to plants: DEX and DELR give it for orpine (Sedum fabaria), and Panțu records it in Transylvania for several species, among them purslane and moonwort.^[5][2][11] Panțu describes the custom behind the name: a sprig of the plant was hung under the roof beam for each member of the household, and if it withered that person was expected to die within the year.^[11]

Timeline

• 1560–1561 – first record, in Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[2][3]
• 1581 – in Coresi's homily book.^[4]
• 1648 – drăgăstos “loving”, in the New Testament of that year.^[2]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1673 – drăgostiv “affectionate”, in Dosoftei's psalter.^[2]
• 1796 – îndrăgosti “to fall in love”.^[2]
• 1801 – in Klein's dictionary, glossed Latin amor, charitas, dilectio.^[9]
• 1929 – Panțu records it as a Transylvanian plant name.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. love, affection for someone or something; especially romantic love: dragoste de țară “love of one's country”.^[5][4]
2. (concrete) A beloved person; what someone loves.^[5]
3. A love affair, a sexual relationship;^[5][2] a face dragoste “to make love”.^[5][2]
4. (botany) orpine (Sedum fabaria).^[5][2][1]

Word family

• drăgăstos
• drăgosteală
• drăgosti
• drăgostiv
• îndrăgosti

Related words

• drag
• amor
• iubire

Usage notes

Cu dragoste or cu toată dragostea also means simply “gladly”, and a prinde dragoste de cineva “to fall in love with someone”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. dragoste
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dragoste
4. ^ 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, 752
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 330
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 445
7. ^ 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. dragoste
8. ^ Gaster, M. (1891), Chrestomatie română: texte tipărite și manuscrise (sec. XVI–XIX), dialectale și populare, cu o introducere, gramatică și un glosar româno-francez, vol. II, Leipzig: Brockhaus / București: Socec
9. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 355
10. ^ Laurian, A. T.; Massim, I. C. (1871), Glossariu care coprinde vorbele d'in limba romana straine prin originea sau form'a loru, cumu si celle de origine indouiosa, Bucuresci: Noua Typographia a Laboratoriloru Romani, p. s.v. dragoste
11. ^ a b c Panțu, Zach. C. (1929), Plantele cunoscute de poporul român. Vocabular botanic cuprinzând numirile române, franceze, germane și științifice, 2nd ed., București: Editura Casei Școalelor, p. 83
12. ^ 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. dragoste