meserere

Forms

meserere f (uncountable)^[1] MDA2 and DLR enter the word as mesereare, with the variants meserea and mesereae.^[2][3] The Psaltirea Scheiană has „Ispoveadiți-vă Domnului că dulce e, că în veacu e meserearea lui” “give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures for ever” (Psalm 135:1).^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin miserēre (“to have pity”), the Latin infinitive kept as a noun.^[4][5][2][6] Tiktin finds the survival of the infinitive as a noun very striking.^[4] Wiktionary instead supposes a lost Romanian verb *mesere, to which the noun suffix -re was added.^[1] The word is related to meser “poor”, from Latin miser.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Psaltirea Voroneț (c. 1551–1558), which has meserearea “his mercy” in Psalm 84:7 and many other verses.^[7] Coresi's psalter of 1570 and the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578), MDA2's first record, use it for the mercy of God.^[8][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th-century texts the word means “mercy, compassion”, chiefly God's.^[4][3] In the 17th century it came to mean an office, a dignity or a privilege granted by a ruler or a superior;^[4][3] Tiktin explains the shift by the fact that offices were owed to the prince's favour, and compares milă and milostenie.^[4][3] MDA2 adds the sense “rank”.^[2] Both senses are obsolete.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1551–1558 – meserearea in the Psaltirea Voroneț.^[7]
• 1570 – mesereare in Coresi's psalter.^[8]
• c. 1573–1578 – mesereare in the Psaltirea Scheiană, MDA2's first record.^[2][10]
• 1581 – „Și ai făcut mare meserearea ta” “and you have shown great mercy” in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[3]
• 1632 – the sense “office” in a document: „avînd mesereare” “holding an office”.^[3]
• 1652 – the sense “office, dignity” in Îndreptarea legii.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete) mercy, compassion.^[2][3][1]
2. (obsolete) An office, function or dignity, a privilege granted by a ruler or a superior.^[2][3][1]
3. (obsolete) rank.^[2]

Related words

• meser
• meserie
• milă
• Latin misereō

References

1. ^ a b c d 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, 1493
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mesereare
4. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. meserere
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. meser
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 800
7. ^ 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 84:7
8. ^ 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 23:5
9. ^ Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. meserere
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 336