mustra

Forms

mustra (third-person singular present mustră, past participle mustrat, third-person subjunctive mustre) first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mōnstrō (“to show, point out”),^{[2][3][4][5][1]} as Pușcariu, Candrea–Densusianu and the REW give it.^[2][6] The Latin verb is formed on mōnstrum (“sign, portent”).^[7]

The Romance cognates keep the old sense “to show”: Italian mostrare, Sardinian mustrare, French montrer, Catalan mostrar, Spanish mostrar and Portuguese mostrar.^[2][6][8] For the change to “to reprove”, Candrea and Densusianu compare French remontrer, and Tiktin adds Italian rimostrare and German remonstrieren.^[6][5] Șăineanu explains that the verb narrowed to pointing out someone's faults.^[9] Graur lists it with monstru and mostră, later loans from the same Latin family.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1581.^[5] The psalter of 1589 has it at Psalm 6:1.^[11] MDA2 cites Varlaam's Cazania of 1643: „O mustra și o preobrăziia pentru păgânătatea ei” “reproached her and rebuked her for her paganism”.^[4][12]

Semantic evolution

In Romanian the verb means reproaching someone, in words, for what they have done.^[3][12] The old language also used it for condemning, insulting, threatening and punishing.^[4] The phrase a-l mustra cugetul (or conștiința) “one's conscience reproves one” means to feel remorse, and the reflexive means to reproach oneself.^[3][13]

Regional speech has further senses: in Oltenia the impersonal reflexive se mustrează “it is said, it is suspected”, and in Maramureș the reciprocal a se mustra “to vie with one another”, as in a folk song where a girl vies with the flowers.^[4][14][15]

Timeline

• 1581 – Tiktin's first record.^[5]
• 1589 – mustra in Psalm 6:1 of the psalter of 1589.^[11]
• 1643 – mustra “reproached” in Varlaam's Cazania.^[4]
• 1657 – a document says the vizier reproached the boyars in the divan.^[12]
• c. 1660–1670 – the form mustru in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[16]
• 1688 – „Și mustră Avraam pre Avimeleh” “and Abraham reproved Abimelech” in the Bucharest Bible.^[5][17]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To reprove, to rebuke, to reproach;^[3][13][1] (reflexive) to reproach oneself or one another: Mama l-a mustrat pentru întârziere.^[3][13][1]
2. (regional, Oltenia, impersonal reflexive) se mustrează: it is said, it is rumoured.^[4][14]
3. (regional, Maramureș, reciprocal) To vie, to compete with one another.^[4][15]
4. (obsolete) To condemn; to insult; to threaten; to punish.^[4]

Word family

• mustrător

Usage notes

A-l mustra (pe cineva) cugetul (or conștiința) means “to feel remorse”.^[3] The present is mustru, popularly also mustrez.^[4][5] A separate regional verb mustra “to paint (a house)”, recorded in 1963 at Părteștii de Jos, comes from German mustern “to print patterns”.^[18][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. mustra
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 685
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. 2, 84
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mustrá
6. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 415
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
11. ^ 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 6:1
12. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mustra¹
13. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 150
14. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov.; Speranția, Th. D. (1906–1908), Graiul nostru. Texte din toate părțile locuite de români, 2 vols., București: Socec, p. 206
15. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. mustrá
16. ^ 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. mustru
17. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 21:25
18. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mustra²