meser

Forms

meser m or n (feminine singular meseră, masculine plural meseri, feminine/neuter plural mesere)^[1] The old texts mostly write measer, the headword of MDA2 and DLR; the Psaltirea Scheiană has „E eu mișelu-s și measeru” “and I am wretched and poor”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin miser (“wretched, unfortunate”).^[4][5][2][1] Elsewhere in Romance the Latin adjective left only a few old forms, such as Old Lombard meser and Old French mezre, which did not last.^[4][6][7] Its own origin is unclear; de Vaan finds no acceptable Indo-European source, though it may be connected with maereō (“to grieve”).^[8]

The neologisms mizerie, from French misère, and mizerabil, from misérable, are its learned doublets.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, which has measer “poor” in Psalm 24:17 and elsewhere.^[9] Coresi's psalter of 1570 uses it too, and MDA2 dates it from the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578).^[10][2] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of the 17th century gloss it with Slavonic нищую “poor”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the word meant “poor”, “humble” and, by extension, “pitiable, unfortunate”; it was often used as a noun, measerii “the poor”, as in Coresi's Gospel of Luke: „Fericați meserii că a voastră este împărăția lu Dumnezeu” “Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God”.^[2][3][5] Ciorănescu dates it, with its derivatives, to the 16th–18th centuries.^[4]

Its derivatives include meserătate “poverty” and the verb meseri “to be poor, to live in want”.^[4][12] From meseri Romanian later formed meserie “trade, craft”, not recorded before the 19th century;^[13][1] Tiktin explains the sense from need and service, as in Italian mestiere.^[13][1]

Timeline

• early 16th century – measer in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[9]
• 1570 – measer in Coresi's psalter.^[10]
• c. 1573–1578 – measer and meserul in the Psaltirea Scheiană, MDA2's first record.^[2][14]
• 1580 – „Bogații și measerii” “the rich and the poor” in a Gospel book of 1580.^[5]
• c. 1660 – measer, glossing Slavonic нищую “poor”, in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1688 – measer in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (obsolete) poor, destitute; also as a noun, a poor person.^[2][4][1]
2. (obsolete) humble.^[2][3]
3. (obsolete, by extension) wretched, unfortunate, deserving pity.^[2][3]

Word family

• meserătate
• meseri
• meserie

Related words

• meserere
• mișel
• mizerie
• mizerabil
• Latin miser

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1477
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. measer
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. meser
5. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. meser
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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 24:17
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 9:31
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. measer
12. ^ Gaster, M. (1891), Chrestomatie română: texte tipărite și manuscrise (sec. XVI–XIX), dialectale și populare, cu o introducere, gramatică și un glosar româno-francez, vol. II, Leipzig: Brockhaus / București: Socec
13. ^ 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. meserie
14. ^ 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 71:12
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ps 39:23