dulceață

Forms

dulceață f (plural dulcețuri)^[1] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has the plural dulcețuri: „cămile rădicând dulceţuri şi aur mult foarte” “camels carrying sweet things and very much gold” (1 Kings 10:2).^[2][3] The Psaltirea Scheiană spells it dulcață and dulcâță beside dulceață.^[4]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian dulce + -eață.^[5][6][2][1] dulce is from Latin dulcis (“sweet”).^[7][8] The same noun exists in Aromanian dultseatsã, recorded by DELR and the DDA.^[8][9][10]

Cihac compared Italian dolcezza and Spanish dulceza, and Wiktionary also compares Dalmatian dulsassa.^[11][7][1] The Italian word is a parallel formation on dolce with -ezza.^[1][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Psaltirea Voronețeană (c. 1551–1558) has it at Psalm 84:13, and Coresi's Tetraevanghel (1560–1561) is DELR's first record.^[13][8] In the 16th-century psalters it often means “goodness, plenty”: „Nădăjduiaște-te în Domnul și fă dulceață” “trust in the Lord and do good” (Psalm 36:3).^[2][14] Candrea glosses it in the Psaltirea Scheiană as bunătate “goodness”.^[4] MDA2 dates it to the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583).^[6]

Semantic evolution

Besides the taste of sweet things, the old language used the word for wealth and abundance: Coresi's Gospel commentary has „aduna-voi acolea tot grâul mieu și dulceața mea” “there I will gather all my grain and my goods”.^[2][8] This sense is now obsolete.^[6] Figurative senses, pleasure, delight, gentleness, the mildness of the air, grew from the taste;^[3][5] Tiktin quotes Văcărescu on dulcețile trupești “the pleasures of the flesh”.^[3][5]

The sense “fruit preserve” is recorded from 1710, in a recipe, and Gheorgachi's 18th-century ceremonial book says that dulceți and coffee are served to the prince.^[2] Scriban took this sense for a translation of Modern Greek γλυκό (glykó), and said it passed into Ukrainian.^[15] Tiktin describes the custom of serving a spoon of preserve with a glass of water to guests, and Scriban notes that it was taken from the East.^[3][15] In shepherds' speech the word also means the milk of sheep and goats.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1551–1558 – dulceață in the Psaltirea Voronețeană.^[13]
• 1560–1561 – in Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[8]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[6][3]
• 1649 – Mardarie's lexicon glosses Slavonic words for sweetness with it.^[16]
• 1688 – the plural dulcețuri in the Bucharest Bible.^[3][17]
• 1710 – the sense “fruit preserve”, in a recipe.^[2]
• 1773 – “sweet taste” of fruit in a sermon.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. sweetness: the quality of being sweet; the taste of sweet foods and drinks; by extension a pleasant taste.^[5][6]
2. A fruit preserve or jam: fruit or flower petals boiled in sugar syrup; plural dulcețuri.^[5][1]
3. A very tasty food; a delicacy.^[5]
4. (figurative) The quality of being pleasant; delight, pleasure, happiness;^[5][6] cu dulceață “gladly, with all one's heart”.^[5][6]
5. (figurative) gentleness, kindness, tenderness.^[5]
6. (obsolete) Wealth, abundance.^[6][2]

Word family

• dulcețar
• dulcețăreasă

Related words

• dulce
• dulcoare
• Aromanian dultseatsã

Usage notes

The plural depends on the sense: dulceți for the quality or the pleasures, dulcețuri for kinds of preserve, though both are used for the jam.^[5][18] Scriban notes that in the north one says a lua dulceți, in the south a lua dulceață “to take some preserve”, and that northern Moldavia formed a rare neuter singular dulceț from the plural dulcețuri.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dulceață
3. ^ 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. dulceață
4. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 285
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 335
6. ^ 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, 770
7. ^ a b 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. dulce
8. ^ a b c d e 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. dulce
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 418
10. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
11. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 84
12. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. dolce
13. ^ a b 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 84:13
14. ^ 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 36:3
15. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 452
16. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro
17. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition)
18. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 223