ieftin

Forms

ieftin m or n (feminine singular ieftină, masculine plural ieftini, feminine/neuter plural ieftine)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Byzantine Greek εὐθηνός (euthēnós), which Tiktin and the DA call Medieval Greek;^{[2][3][4][5][6]} MDA2 writes the same form as Modern Greek, and DEX and Ciorănescu name Modern Greek εὐθινός (efthinós).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Wiktionary takes the older form partly from Bulgarian е́втин (évtin) and partly from Greek, the Bulgarian word being itself from Greek.^[1] The Bulgarian etymological dictionary takes the Bulgarian word from Greek as well, and names Serbo-Croatian jevtin and Turkish yeftin as borrowings of it.^[7] Ciorănescu compares the Bulgarian and Serbian words.^[6]

In Greek the adjective is formed on the noun εὐθηνία (euthēnía) and is recorded from the 6th century;^[8] Medieval Greek used it both for “cheap” and for “generous”, the second sense that the oldest Romanian texts show.^[8] The older forms are eftin and eften; ieften is a western variant.^[4][9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are of the 16th century, in the Codicele Voronețean (James 5:11), where the sense is “merciful”.^[2][4] The psalters have the same sense: Coresi's psalter of 1570 and the Psaltirea Scheiană render Psalm 85:14 and 102:8, the Lord „eftin și milostiv” “gracious and merciful”, where Tiktin notes the Slavonic ščedrŭ “generous”.^[10][2]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “merciful, generous” lasted into the 17th century: Dosoftei's verse Psalter calls God „ieftin și milos”, and the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of 1649–1682 use the word to gloss Slavonic words for “generous”.^[2][11] Ciorănescu lists old derivatives of that sense, ieftenșug and eftinie “mercy”, and the verb ieftini “to be merciful”.^[6] The commercial sense “cheap” is recorded in the 18th century: a text of 1733 says that fish is cheap in spring and dear in summer.^[3] Greek had both senses, as the Medieval Greek examples show.^[8]

From “cheap” the word came to mean “of little worth, commonplace, trivial”.^[4][5] Adverbial phrases are pe ieftin “at little cost” and a scăpa ieftin “to get off lightly”.^[2][5] The proverb scump la tărâțe și ieftin la făină “dear with the bran and cheap with the flour” mocks a person careful with trifles and careless with what matters.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – eftin “merciful” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4][2]
• 1570 – eftin in Coresi's psalter, Psalm 85:14.^[10]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1673 – ieftin și milos in Dosoftei's verse Psalter.^[2]
• 1733 – eftin “cheap”, of fish in spring.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. cheap, inexpensive: costing little; often used as an adverb: a cumpăra ieftin “to buy cheaply”;^[5][4][1] a scăpa ieftin “to get off lightly”.^[5][4][1]
2. (figurative) Commonplace, unoriginal, trivial: un efect ieftin “a cheap effect”.^[5][4]
3. (obsolete) merciful, generous.^[4][2]

Word family

• ieftinătate
• ieftini
• ieftenșug

Usage notes

Ieften is a variant used in the west of the country.^[9][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ieftin
3. ^ 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. ieftin
4. ^ 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, 1106
5. ^ 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. 487
6. ^ 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. ieftin
7. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 476
8. ^ a b c Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr, p. s.v. ευθηνός
9. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 616
10. ^ 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 85:14
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. ieftin