drege

Forms

drege (third-person singular present drege, past participle dres, third-person subjunctive dreagă), 3rd conjugation^[1] The old form derege is that of the 16th-century texts: Coresi's psalter has „Și cine derege-mă-va până la Idumeea?” “and who will lead me into Edom?” (Psalm 107:11).^[2][3] Direge is the old and regional variant, the form Dosoftei used: „Spre tine-m deregi pașii” “you direct my steps towards you”.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dīrigō (“to set in a line, to direct, to guide”), which Latin also used in the form dērigō.^[5][4][1] DELR starts from the variant, formed on dē- and regō (“to lead, to rule”), and notes that Latin itself confused it with the form in ⟨dī-⟩, formed on dis- and the same verb.^[6] The Oxford Latin Dictionary holds the form with ⟨der-⟩ to be the earlier one, with no certain inscription with ⟨dir-⟩ before the 4th century AD.^[7] Candrea and Densusianu explained the Romanian /e/ of the first syllable by sound change alone, in the forms where the /i/ was unstressed;^[8][6] DELR answers that the confusion of the two prefixes is attested for this verb in Latin texts.^[8][6] The variant direge arose by dissimilation of /e…e/ to /i…e/.^[8]

The verb survives south of the Danube, formed there with the prefix ãn-: Aromanian ndreg and Megleno-Romanian andireg.^[5][9][1] Its Romance relatives are few and regional, in Romansh, Friulian and Occitan, and Catalan adergar.^[6][10][5] The Latin verb was also taken into Albanian dërgoj (“to send”).^[6] Romanian later borrowed the same Latin verb as the learned doublets dirigui and dirija.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in the form derege.^[6][11][12] The sense there is “to guide, to lead on the right way”, and Coresi often uses it to render the Slavonic nastaviti.^[3][2] The same psalter has the negative agent noun nederegător “one who does nothing”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From “to direct, to lead” the verb moved to “to set in order, to arrange, to prepare”, and then to “to put right, to repair”, now its main sense.^[5][3] Old usage also had “to pour wine, to fill the glasses”, and Șăineanu records the sense “to doctor wine”.^[5][13] With food it means to improve the taste with spices or a sauce, and with the face to make up; the noun dres was once a word for cosmetics and medicines and, in the plural, for official papers.^[5][6] In folk usage it can mean to undo a spell.^[6] The old sense “to make, to do” survives only in the pair face și drege.^[6][4]

The agent noun dregător became the word for a dignitary of the princely court and administration in the Romanian principalities, recorded from 1551–1553, with dregătorie for the office from 1566.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – derege “to guide” and nederegător in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first records.^[6][11]
• 1551–1553 – deregător, later “court dignitary”, in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel.^[6]
• 1566 – deregătorie “office of a dignitary” in Coresi.^[6]
• 1597 – the noun dires “repair; arrangement; document”.^[6]
• 1844 – dresătură “repair; manuring of a field”.^[6]
• 1870 – dresură “repair” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (colloquial) To repair, to mend a thing or a machine so that it works again: Am dus ceasul la ceasornicar să mi-l dreagă.^[4][1]
2. (figurative, also reflexive) To recover, to pick up again after an illness or an accident.^[4][14]
3. (figurative) To correct a mistake or an injustice.^[4][14]
4. To arrange, to plan;^[4] face și drege “he tries everything; he boasts of his efforts”.^[4]
5. To season a dish, to improve its taste; to adulterate a drink.^[4][1]
6. (also reflexive) To make up the face.^[4][5]
7. (obsolete) To guide, to lead.^[11][5]

Word family

• dregător
• dregătoresc
• dregătorie
• dregătorime
• dres
• dresătură
• dreseală
• dresură
• îndirege

Related words

• dirigui
• dirija
• drept
• Aromanian ndreg
• Latin dīrigō

Usage notes

A-și drege glasul (or vocea) means to clear one's throat before speaking or singing, and a-și drege gustul to eat or drink something pleasant to take away a bad taste.^[4][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. drege
3. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. drege
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 331
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. drege
6. ^ 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. drege
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 744
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2649
11. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 757
12. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 14:2
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 220
14. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. drege