foarte

Forms

foarte^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin forte (“strong, strongly”), a form of the adjective fortis (“strong, robust”) that came to be used as an adverb.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Wiktionary traces the Latin adjective to Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“to rise, high”).^[1] Istro-Romanian has forte, which Byhan records as an adjective “strong”, while the northern word is only an adverb.^[2][6]

The same use of “strong” for “very” is found in French fort, and Romanian itself does the same with tare.^[2] Further cognates are Italian forte, Spanish fuerte and Albanian fortë.^[2][4] Ciorănescu lists the neologisms of the same Latin family that Romanian later borrowed, among them fort and forță from French and forte from Italian music.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest Romanian psalters already use it: the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century has foarte in Psalm 47:1, and every later 16th-century psalter has it dozens of times.^[7] Tiktin cites the Psaltirea Scheiană, and MDA2 dates its first record to Coresi's Psalter of 1577.^[8][3]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the word could stand alone beside a verb, meaning “greatly, very much”: Apa să întărită foarte pre pământ “the water prevailed greatly upon the earth” in the Bible of 1688.^[9] It could also come before the verb, as in Coresi's Psalter: Doamne, foarte învârtoșară-se vlădicii lor “Lord, their princes hardened themselves greatly”.^[9] Today this verbal use survives only in popular speech, and the standard language says foarte mult or foarte tare instead.^[9][8]

The main modern use is as the marker of the absolute superlative before an adjective or adverb.^[2][10] Placed after the adjective (supărat foarte) it now sounds old or literary.^[10][11]

Timeline

• early 16th century – foarte in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[7]
• c. 1563–1583 – foarte se laudă “boasts greatly” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[9]
• 1577 – Coresi's Psalter, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1688 – foarte beside a verb in the Bucharest Bible.^[9]

Meanings

Adverb

1. very: before an adjective or adverb, forms the absolute superlative: foarte frumos “very beautiful”, foarte bine “very well”; also before an adjectival phrase or a noun that names a quality.^[10][3]
2. (popular) With a verb, before it, after it or between the auxiliary and the participle: greatly, much.^[10][3]
3. (usually ironic) Placed before the verb a mulțumi “to thank”, to say “thank you very much indeed”.^[10]

Usage notes

The colloquial phrase nici prea-prea, nici foarte-foarte means “so-so, moderately”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. foarte
3. ^ 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, 923
4. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 113
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 217
7. ^ 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 47:1
8. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. foarte
9. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. foarte
10. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 403
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 310