el

Forms

el m (third-person singular, plural ei, feminine equivalent ea)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ille (“that”), the demonstrative of distance, which became the third-person pronoun in all the Romance languages in place of classical is.^[2][3][4][1] The masculine form comes from the accusative illum, extended to the nominative; if this happened before final ⟨-s⟩ was lost, it implies a form *illus, the form Ciorănescu and Wiktionary start from.^[2][3][1] The feminine ea is from illa.^[2][5]

The other forms continue Latin case forms.^[2] The genitive–dative lui is from the Late Latin dative illūī, remade after Latin cuī (“to whom”), and the feminine ⟨ei⟩ was formed after it.^[2] The plural lor is from illōrum.^[2][3] The unstressed forms lost the first syllable: îl from the masculine accusative, o from illam through ⟨*uă⟩.^[2]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian el, Megleno-Romanian ĭel and Istro-Romanian ĭe.^[3][2][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian egli, French il, Catalan ell and Spanish él.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the feminine genitive ei in a Slavonic document of 1480.^[2][8][9] In Romanian texts the pronoun is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, and a document of 1521 has „iară el să treacă” “and he may pass”.^[2][9][10]

Semantic evolution

Besides standing for a person or thing, the pronoun has colloquial senses: el “my husband” and ea “my wife”.^[10][5] Popular speech uses it as a euphemism for the devil.^[10] The genitive expresses possession, as in casa lui “his house”, and in phrases: ai lui “his family, his people”, ale lui “his whims”.^[5][10] Old texts had emphatic forms such as eluși “himself”.^[8] The genitive lui also became the article of proper names (lui Ion), and by extension of some common nouns for persons.^[3]

The unstressed accusative l took a prothetic î (îl), and Ciorănescu dates it to texts of 1630–1650, after Găzdaru.^[3] The initial e is pronounced with a palatal glide, /jel/, and Ciorănescu calls Scriban's spelling ĭel a mistake.^[3][11]

Timeline

• 1480 – the feminine genitive ei in a Slavonic document.^[2][8]
• early 16th century – in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2]
• 1521 – „iară el să treacă” in a document.^[9][10]
• 1630–1650 – the accusative îl with prothetic î.^[3]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. he, she; stands for the person or thing spoken about; plural ei, ele “they”.^[5][1]
2. (colloquial, singular) Husband (el); wife (ea).^[5]
3. In the genitive (lui, ei, lor): his, her, their: mașina lor “their car”, and ai lui “his family”.^[5]
4. In the dative (lui, ei, îi, i, lor, le): to him, to her, to them: I-am scris ieri. “I wrote to him yesterday.”^[5]
5. In the accusative (îl, l, o, îi, le, and el, ea after prepositions): him, her, them: Pe el îl aștept. “He's the one I'm waiting for.”^[5]

Related words

• ea
• acel
• Aromanian el
• Latin ille

Usage notes

The pronoun is pronounced with an initial glide: [jel], [ja], [jej], [ˈjele].^[5][1]

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 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. el
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. el
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4266
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. 1, 345
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 439
7. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula, p. s.v. ie
8. ^ 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. el
9. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. el
10. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 794
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 462