naște

Forms

naște (third-person singular present naște, past participle născut, third-person subjunctive nască) 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin nāscere (“to be born”), the active form that replaced the classical deponent nāscor.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic and to the root Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget”), with the inchoative suffix -scō.^[1]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian nascu, Megleno-Romanian nasc and Istro-Romanian nǫscu.^[2][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian nascere, Occitan naisser, French naître, Spanish nacer and Portuguese nascer.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century and in the Codicele Voronețean, in the Epistle of James.^[10][11] MDA2 dates its first record to the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578).^[4] A text of 1550–1580 quoted by the DLR already has au născut cinci coconi “she has given birth to five children”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The transitive sense “to give birth to” is the core, said of women and in the old language also of men, “to beget”: the 1688 Bible has Avraam au născut pre Isaac “Abraham begat Isaac”.^[11][4] The reflexive a se naște “to be born” and an intransitive use, as in the proverb Ce naște din pisică șoareci mănâncă “what is born of a cat eats mice”, sit beside it.^[3][11]

The figurative senses “to create, give rise to, provoke” and, reflexively, “to arise, appear” are quoted by Tiktin from Alecsandri and Coșbuc.^[11][3] Ciorănescu derives renaște “to be reborn” from French renaître and Renaștere from French Renaissance.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – naște in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[10]
• c. 1550–1580 – au născut “she has given birth”.^[5]
• c. 1563–1583 – naște in the Codicele Voronețean.^[11]
• c. 1573–1578 – the Psaltirea Scheiană, MDA2's first record.^[4]
• 1688 – născu “bore, begat” throughout the Bucharest Bible.^[11][12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To give birth to a child; of animals, to bear young.^[3][1]
2. (reflexive) To be born, to come into the world: S-a născut într-un sat de munte.^[3][1]
3. (transitive, figurative) To create, produce; to provoke or stir up.^[3][4]
4. (reflexive, figurative) To arise, form or appear.^[3][4]

Word family

• naștere
• născut
• născător
• născătoare
• renaște

Related words

• nat

Usage notes

The past participle is născut, and the verbal noun naștere “birth” can also mean Christmas.^[2][1] The proverb Ce naște din pisică șoareci mănâncă says that children inherit their parents' habits.^[3][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. naște
3. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 690
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 97
5. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. naște
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 729
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 204
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5832
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 77:8
11. ^ 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. naște
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gn 4:1
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. naște