hotărî

Forms

hotărî (third-person singular present hotărăște, past participle hotărât), 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian hotar (“boundary”) + -î.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} The DA, DER and MDA2 compare Hungarian határoz (“to set the boundary of; to determine, decide”), which may have served as a model.^[5][4][3] The Hungarian verb is formed on the Hungarian noun for “border” and is recorded from about 1519 in the sense “to fix, determine”.^[6][7]

hotar “boundary” is from Hungarian határ (“border”).^[4][8][9] Zaicz explains the Hungarian word as a Hungarian formation, probably on hat (“to go forward”) with the suffix -ár, and derives the Romanian word and Serbo-Croatian hatar from it.^[7] Ciorănescu notes that it is not certain whether the Hungarian word gave the Slavonic one or came from it, and that the Romanian word could also come from Slavonic; compare Serbo-Croatian atar (“region”).^[4] Tamás treats the derivative hotăraș (“bordering”) as a Romanian formation on the model of határos.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is recorded in 1649 in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, as hotărăsc and the participle hotărît, glossing Slavonic words for “to determine”.^[11] Ureche's chronicle of about 1642–1647, known from later copies, already has hotărât.^[12] MDA2's first record is in Miron Costin's chronicle.^[3] The first sense was “to set the boundary of a region or a country”: the Bible of 1688 has „Hotarăle lor de la mare, marea cea mare va hotărî” “the great sea shall be the boundary of their border on the sea side”.^[5][13]

Semantic evolution

The old, concrete senses were “to mark out the boundary of a region” and, reflexively, “to border on, be neighbour to”: Neculce wrote that the Turks had sent men to mark out the district of Hotin, „au hotărit ținutul Hotinului”.^[5][2] From fixing a limit the verb passed to fixing a date or a term, laying down conditions, defining, and choosing between possibilities, “to decide”; reflexively, “to make up one's mind”.^[3][2] Hungarian határoz went the same way, a development Zaicz compares with Latin dēfīniō.^[7] Rarer senses are “to order someone to do something”, with the dative, and “to destine someone for something”; an old grammatical use was “to determine a noun with the article”.^[3][2] The old sense survives in a folk verse: Hotărăște-ți grădina “mark out the bounds of your garden”.^[14]

Timeline

• 1392 – the base hotar “boundary”.^[9]
• c. 1642–1647 – hotărât in Ureche's chronicle (later copies).^[12]
• 1649 – hotărăsc and hotărît in Mardarie's lexicon.^[11]
• c. 1675 – hotărăște in Miron Costin's chronicle.^[3]
• 1688 – va hotărî “will be the boundary” in the Bucharest Bible.^[5][13]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses hotărăsc with Latin definio, termino, determino, limito.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To decide, choose between several possibilities; reflexive: to make up one's mind; transitive also: to make someone decide.^[2][3]
2. (rare, with the dative) To order someone to do something.^[2][3]
3. To fix, set a date, a term or a plan.^[2][3]
4. To destine someone for something.^[2][3]
5. (obsolete) To mark out the boundaries of a territory; reflexive: to border on, be neighbour to.^[2][3]

Word family

• hotărât
• hotărâtor
• hotărâre
• nehotărât
• hotăraș

Related words

• hotar
• hotărnici
• Hungarian határoz

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 481
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1088
4. ^ a b c d 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. hotar
5. ^ 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. hotărî
6. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
7. ^ a b c Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
8. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1087
9. ^ 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. hotar
10. ^ Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 444
11. ^ a b 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. hotărăsc
12. ^ a b 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. hotărât
13. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Numerile 34:6
14. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
15. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 371