est

Forms

est n (uncountable)^[1] An old Transylvanian variant was ost, from German.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French est, and DELR, MDA2 and the DLR name Italian est beside it.^{[2][4][3][5][6]} The variant ⟨ost⟩ is from German Ost.^[2]

French took the word from Old English ēast.^[1] DELR traces it to Common Germanic *aust- and Proto-Indo-European *aus- (“dawn, east”), comparing Latin aurōra (“dawn”) and Ancient Greek ἕως (héōs, “dawn”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1790.^[6] DELR, MDA2 and the DLR date it to 1795, in Amfilohie Hotiniul's geography in the Moldavian language, which introduces the French names of the cardinal points: „Răsăritul îl numesc est, apusul, ovest, amiazăzi, sud, miazănoapte, nord” “they call the sunrise est, the sunset ovest, the south sud, the north nord”.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

In the early 19th century geographies the word was still explained by the native răsărit; one says that est means sunrise in French.^[3] From the point of the compass it was extended to the eastern part of a region, a country or a town.^[3][4] DELR records a special sense, the part of Europe that was under Soviet influence.^[2] The adjective estic “eastern” is recorded as ostic in 1852 and as estic in 1854.^[2]

Timeline

• 1790 – the first record according to Tiktin.^[6]
• 1795 – est in Amfilohie Hotiniul's geography.^[2][4]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary, also as the name of the east wind.^[7]
• 1852 – the adjective ostic “eastern”.^[2]
• 1854 – the form estic in Telegraful.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. east: one of the four cardinal points, opposite the west, where the sun rises; the place on the horizon where it rises.^[5][4]
2. The eastern part of a region; the Orient.^[5][4]
3. (history) The countries of eastern Europe under Soviet influence.^[2]

Word family

• estic

Related words

• răsărit
• vest

Usage notes

The phrase de est means “eastern”.^[8] A different word, the old and regional demonstrative est “this”, appears in 19th-century dictionaries in est an “this year”.^[9][10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. est
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. est
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, 834
5. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 361
6. ^ 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. est
7. ^ Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. est
8. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. est
9. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 214
10. ^ Pisone, Domițian (1865), Dictionariu românescu, latinescu, germanescu și francescu, lucrat după sistemul Lexiconului de Buda, București: Typografia Ioann Weiss, p. 123