fi

Forms

a fi (present sunt, ești, este or informal e, past participle fost, subjunctive fie), 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sum (“to be”), whose infinitive ⟨esse⟩ was replaced by that of fierī (“to become, happen”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary traces the citation form ⟨fi⟩ and the forms in ⟨f-⟩ to a Vulgar Latin infinitive *fīre.^[1] The present ⟨e⟩, ⟨este⟩ continues Latin ⟨est⟩, the perfect ⟨fui⟩ Latin ⟨fuī⟩ and the imperfect ⟨eram⟩ Latin ⟨eram⟩.^[5] Tiktin explains the participle ⟨fost⟩ as a new formation: the regular outcome of the Latin participle was avoided because it sounded indecent, and the same reason gave the perfect ⟨fuseși⟩ and the pluperfect ⟨fusesem⟩.^[5]

The verb survives in all four branches: Aromanian hiu and escu, Megleno-Romanian săm and Istro-Romanian escu.^[2][6][7] The other Romance languages kept ⟨fierī⟩ only as a defective verb, as in Old Logudorese fire.^[4]

Romanian keeps an old optative in the curses ⟨fire-ai⟩, ⟨fire-ar⟩, and the subjunctive fie forms the compounds fiecare, fiece and fiecine; fiindcă is the gerund ⟨fiind⟩ with că.^[2] The noun fire “nature, character” is the old infinitive used as a noun.^[2] ființă “being” is the gerund ⟨fiind⟩ with the suffix ⟨-ință⟩;^[2] Pușcariu and the DA derived it from Vulgar Latin *fientia, which Ciorănescu finds plausible but unnecessary.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is in the first Romanian texts: the infinitive ⟨fi⟩ occurs in the Hurmuzaki Psalter of the early 16th century,^[8] and Tiktin's first record is Neacșu's letter of 1521.^[5] MDA2 gives the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583) as its first record.^[9] The sense was already the full range of “to be”: to exist, to be somewhere, and the copula.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From “to exist” and “to be somewhere” the verb took the senses “to live”, “to last” and “to take place”, and with the weather it means “to turn” (frosty, fine).^[2][3] With prepositions it forms idioms: with ⟨cu⟩ “to side with”, with ⟨de⟩ “to deserve”, and with the conjunction ⟨să⟩ “to have to”.^[2]

As in Latin it is the copula, and with the dative it expresses a feeling: mi-e frig “I am cold”.^[3] Old texts joined the dative pronoun to the verb, mi-e, ți-e, ni-e;^[5] Moldavia has mi-i, ți-i.^[5] It is also the auxiliary of the passive and of the future perfect, the perfect conditional, the perfect subjunctive and the presumptive.^[3]

Timeline

• early 16th century – the infinitive ⟨fi⟩ in the Hurmuzaki Psalter.^[8]
• 1521 – in Neacșu's letter, Tiktin's first record.^[5]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean, MDA2's first record.^[9]
• 1570 – in Coresi's Psalter.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To exist, to have being: Nu mai sunt lupi în pădurea asta.^[3][2]
2. To be (somewhere), to be found: Cartea e pe masă. Also to come from: Sunt din Cluj.^[3][2]
3. To live;^[3][2] (of things and customs) to last: Obiceiul acesta este și azi.^[3][2]
4. To happen, to take place: Nunta a fost duminică.^[3][2]
5. To cost: Cât e pâinea?^[3]
6. (in superstitions and riddles) To mean, to be a sign of.^[3]
7. (copula) To be: Casa este mare.^[3][1]
8. (impersonal, with a dative) To feel: Mi-e foame.^[3][1]
9. (impersonal, with a subjunctive or infinitive) To be due, to have to: Când a fost să plece, a început ploaia.^[3][2]
10. (in the imperfect, with a subjunctive) To be about to, to nearly do: Era să cadă de pe scară.^[3][1]
11. (impersonal, with a supine) To be needed or proper: E mult de lucru.^[3]
12. (auxiliary) Forms the passive with a participle (a fost ales) and, with an invariable participle, the future perfect, the perfect conditional, subjunctive and infinitive and the presumptive (ar fi venit, să fi știut).^[3]

Word family

• fire
• firesc
• firește
• nefiresc
• fiitor
• ființa
• desființa
• înființa
• ființă
• fiecare
• fiindcă

Related words

• Aromanian hiu
• Latin sum

Usage notes

The present is very irregular: sunt, ești, este (colloquially e, îi, i), suntem, sunteți, sunt (popular îs); the imperfect is eram, the simple perfect fui, the subjunctive să fiu, the participle fost.^[3][9] The spelling sunt replaced sînt in 1993.^[1] A regional infinitive hi is common in the east.^[9][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. fi
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 390
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3288
5. ^ 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. fi
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 559
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 255
8. ^ 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 9:9
9. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 899
10. ^ 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 5:5
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 504