ierta

Forms

ierta (third-person singular present iartă, past participle iertat, third-person subjunctive ierte), first conjugation^[1] MDA2 also records the old spelling erta.^[2] It occurs in Barac: „Ertă-mă-vei de plată” “you will let me off paying”.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *lībertō (“to set free”), a popular Latin verb that the DA and the REW reconstruct.^[3][4][5][2] Wiktionary gives it as Latin and derives it ultimately from lībertās (“liberty, freedom”)^[1], while the DA and Șăineanu take it from lībertus (“freed from slavery”).^[3][6]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian ljert and Megleno-Romanian l'ert.^[5][7][8] Ciorănescu notes that the Latin verb lived on only in Romanian, and the REW lists no cognate in the other Romance languages.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest Romanian record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, where iartă is “forgive”, said of sins (Psalm 24).^[9] MDA2 dates its first record to Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense was “to set free”, and the DA still records the verb for freeing a slave in the 17th and 18th centuries, as in Dosoftei.^[3][2] From it came “to release from a duty”: to exempt someone from military service, a tax or a debt, or from a promise.^[3][2][5] The religious sense “to forgive a sin” dominates from the first texts, in the Lord's Prayer: „Și ne iartă greșalele noastre, cum și noi iertăm greșiților noștri” “and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us”.^[10]

The verb also came to mean “to allow”: Pontbriant glosses nu me iertă timpul “I have no time”, and Șăineanu de m-ar ierta vremea “if time allowed me”.^[11][6] The phrase l-a iertat Dumnezeu “God has released him” is said of someone who died after long suffering, and Dumnezeu să-l ierte “God rest his soul” is said of the dead.^[10][12] Old meanings also include “to make peace” and “to take one's leave”.^[5]

Timeline

• early 16th century – iartă “forgive” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[9]
• 1581 – Coresi's Carte de învățătură, the first record in MDA2.^[2]
• 1660 – the Slavonic–Romanian lexicon Lex.St. glosses Slavonic words for “let go, forgive” with iartă.^[13]
• 1688 – the Bucharest Bible: „De să va pocăi, iartă lui” “if he repents, forgive him” (Luke 17:3).^[10][14]
• c. 1743 – Neculce: the prince „l-au iertat de toate greșelele lui” “forgave him all his faults”.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To forgive: not to punish someone, to overlook a fault, no longer to hold someone guilty.^[12][1]
2. To excuse: Iertați-mă, am întârziat.^[12][15]
3. To exempt someone from an obligation, a debt or a tax.^[12][1]
4. (popular, colloquial) To permit, to let.^[12]
5. (obsolete) To free someone from slavery.^[2][1]

Word family

• iertăciune
• iertător
• neiertat
• neiertător
• iertare
• iertat

Related words

• Aromanian ljert

Usage notes

Several set phrases use the verb: Dumnezeu să-l ierte is said when speaking of a dead person, Doamne, iartă-mă! after an improper word, and ba să mă ierți! to contradict someone.^[12] De neiertat means “unforgivable”.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1108
3. ^ 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. ierta
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5014
5. ^ a b c d e 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. ierta
6. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 303
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 647
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 176
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 24:19
10. ^ 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. ierta
11. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 311
12. ^ 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. 488
13. ^ 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. iartă
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Lk 17:3
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. ierta