folosi

Forms

folosi (third-person singular present folosește, past participle folosit), fourth conjugation^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian folos + -i, on the noun meaning “use, profit”.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The noun is from Byzantine Greek φελός (phelós), a shortened form of Ancient Greek ὄφελος (óphelos, “help, advantage”).^[3][6][5] DEX names Modern Greek όφελος (ófelos).^[2] The Greek noun belongs with the verb ὀφέλλω (ophéllō, “to increase, to further”).^[7] Wiktionary compares Aromanian felisescu.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1482, in a Slavonic document from the Romanian lands.^[8] In Romanian texts it appears in Coresi's psalter of 1577 (Psalm 3:5) and in Varlaam's Cazania of 1643, where a man sinking in the water cries „Doamne, foloseaște-mi” “Lord, help me”: the first sense is “to be of help, to save”, with a dative.^[9][4][3]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the verb meant “to be of use or help to someone” (with the dative), and also “to gain, to profit from something”.^[4][3] In an old chronicle it could mean “to achieve, to manage”: n-au putut folosi nimic “they could achieve nothing”.^[8] The reflexive a se folosi de “to make use of” led to the transitive “to use”, now the main sense, a near-synonym of a utiliza and a întrebuința.^[3][2][8]

Timeline

• c. 1482 – the first record, in a Slavonic document.^[8]
• c. 1563-1583 – the noun folos in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]
• 1577 – folosi in Coresi's psalter.^[9]
• 1643 – foloseaște-mi “help me” in Varlaam's Cazania.^[4][3]
• 1649 – folosesc in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To use, to make use of: Folosesc un dicționar.; reflexive a se folosi de “to make use of”.^[2][3][1]
2. (intransitive, with the dative) To be of use or help to someone: Nu-ți folosește la nimic.^[2][3]
3. (reflexive) To profit from something, to take advantage of it.^[2][3]

Word family

• folosință
• folosire
• folosit
• folositor

Related words

• folos
• Ancient Greek ὄφελος (óphelos)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 404
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 926
4. ^ a b c d 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. folosi
5. ^ a b 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. folos
6. ^ 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. folos
7. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 1069
8. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. folosi
9. ^ 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 3:5
10. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. folosesc