eu

Forms

eu (dative mie, îmi, mi; accusative (pe) mine, mă); noun: plural euri^[2][3] Popular speech has the variant io and the pronunciation ieu;^[3][4] DER notes that io is heard in Muntenia.^[3][4] Old texts have the accusatives mene and me and the dative îm.^[3][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin eo (“I”), the Late Latin form of egō with the loss of /g/ found in every Romance language except Sardinian.^[5][4][1] Candrea and Densusianu called the loss of /g/ still unexplained.^[6]

The pronoun survives in all branches: Aromanian eu and io, Megleno-Romanian io and Istro-Romanian io.^[4][5][7] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian jo, Italian io, Occitan ieu, French je, Spanish yo and Portuguese eu.^[4][8]

The oblique forms continue other Latin forms: the dative ⟨mie⟩ comes from mĭhĭ (Tiktin: from a blend with mī), the clitic ⟨mă⟩ from mē.^[4][5][9] The stressed accusative ⟨mine⟩ (old ⟨mene⟩) points to a form Vulgar Latin *mēne, whose ending is not well explained: DELR lists the emphatic particle -ne and the influence of cine from Latin quem among the explanations, and Tiktin favours the second.^[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of about 1500;^[5][9][3] Tiktin cites Neacșu's letter of 1521 and MDA2 the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583).^[5][9][3] Old official documents open with it, followed by the name of the person who issues the deed.^[3]

Semantic evolution

As a pronoun the word has kept its meaning; the unstressed dative îmi also marks possession and serves as an ethic dative.^[2] Joking speech says eu și cu mine “I in person”.^[9]

In the 19th century the word became a noun of philosophy and psychology, “the self, the ego”, after French le moi and German das Ich;^[5][10] DELR's first record of the noun is from 1834.^[5][10] The compound non-eu “the non-self” (1890) follows Fichte's German Nicht-Ich and French non-moi.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[5]
• 1521 – in Neacșu's letter.^[9]
• 1834 – the noun “self, ego”, in I. Văcărescu.^[5]
• 1862 – euism “egoism”, in Pumnul.^[5]
• 1890 – non-eu “the non-self”.^[5]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (nominative) I, the person speaking: Eu plec mâine.; also in the opening formula of official documents.^[2][3]
2. (dative mie, îmi, mi) to me; also marking possession and as an ethic dative: Îmi caut cheile.^[2]
3. (accusative mă, m-, after prepositions mine) me; also in reflexive verbs: M-am sculat devreme.^[2]

Noun

1. (philosophy, psychology) The self, the core of the personality; in Freud, the ego.^[2][5]

Word family

• euism
• non-eu

Related words

• Aromanian eu
• Latin egō

Usage notes

After a preposition the stressed accusative is used: cu mine, fără mine, pentru mine.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 364
3. ^ 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, 842
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. eu
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. eu
6. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
7. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2830
9. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. eu
10. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. eu