iveală

Forms

iveală f (plural iveli)^[1] An old variant is ivală, as in Cantemir: „Vinul ... gândurile acoperite ... la ivală scoate” “wine brings hidden thoughts to light”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian ivi + -eală, from the verb “to show;^[1] (reflexive) to appear”.^[3][4][2][1] The verb ivi is from Old Church Slavonic ꙗвити (javiti, “to show, to reveal”).^[5][3][1] The Old Church Slavonic verb continues Proto-Slavic *javiti, from *aviti (“to show”).^[1][6] The verb survives south of the Danube as Megleno-Romanian iăves (“to appear”).^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Romanian translation of Herodotus of 1645.^[2] From the start the noun is used mostly in phrases with la iveală “into view, into the open”: the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has a veni la iveală “to come to light” in Mark 4:22, and a liturgy of 1702 a aduce la iveală “to bring to light”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word names the visibility of something hidden until then, and lives almost only in set phrases.^[2][4] A ieși la iveală is “to appear, to come to light, to be discovered”;^[1] a scoate or a da la iveală is “to reveal, to make known”, and also “to publish, to print”.^[4][2] In the 17th- and 18th-century chronicles la iveală also meant “openly, in public”: Axinte Uricariul wrote that the Khan, though he did not like the prince, la iveală se arăta voitor de bine “in public showed himself well-disposed”, and Nicolae Costin has la ivala tuturor “in front of everyone”.^[2][3] The plain sense “appearance, apparition” is recorded as well.^[3][1]

Timeline

• 1645 – the first record, in a Romanian translation of Herodotus.^[2]
• 1688 – a veni la iveală “to come to light” in the Bucharest Bible.^[2]
• 1702 – a aduce la iveală “to bring to light” in a liturgy.^[2]
• 1705 – la ivală and în ivală in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[2]
• c. 1710 – la ivala tuturor “in front of everyone” in Nicolae Costin's chronicle.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. appearance, the coming into view of something; apparition.^[4][3][1]
2. a ieși la iveală: to appear, to come out; to come to light, to be discovered: Adevărul a ieșit până la urmă la iveală. “The truth came out in the end.”^[4][8]
3. a scoate (or a da) la iveală: to bring to light, to reveal, to make known; to publish, to print.^[4][3]
4. (dated) la iveală: openly, in front of someone.^[3][2]

Related words

• ivi
• ivire

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. iveală
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1173
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 527
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. ivi
6. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 30
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 153
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 557