neștine

Forms

neștine (genitive-dative nescui)^[1][2] The variant niștine occurs in the old texts: „în deşert se nevoiaşte niştine” “in vain does one strive”.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nesciō (“I do not know”) in a Latin phrase meaning “I don't know who”.^[4][1] DEX, MDA2 and DLR analyse it as the verb with quī (“who”) and -ne.^[4][2][3] Tiktin and Scriban start from nesciō quem, with the accusative, and Scriban takes the dative form from nesciō cui;^[1][5][6] Wiktionary reconstructs *nescio quene.^[1][5][6] Pușcariu groups it with niște and niscai, all with the Latin verb as their first part, which expresses negation and indefiniteness at once.^[7] The REW places these Romanian compounds under the same verb.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean, a manuscript of the Acts and Epistles: „Iară se neştine de voi lipsitu iaste de mîndrie” “but if any of you lacks wisdom”.^[3][2][1]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts it means “someone, anyone”, and by extension “whoever, each one”; with a negation it means “no one”.^[2][3] Coresi's Evanghelie and Varlaam use it in this way, and the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has it more than a hundred times.^[3][9] Tiktin also quotes Dosoftei's genitive-dative nescui and a use by Bolintineanu.^[1] It is now dated or regional, replaced by cineva.^[4][10]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – neştine “anyone” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[2][3]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Evanghelie.^[3][11]
• 1688 – some 134 times in the Bucharest Bible, from Genesis 13:17 on.^[9]
• 1825 – entered in the Lexicon de la Buda, glossed with Latin quidam, quispiam.^[12]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (dated, regional) someone, somebody.^[4][6]
2. (dated) anyone, whoever; each one.^[4][2]
3. (dated, with a negation) no one.^[2]

Related words

• niște
• niscai
• cineva
• Latin nesciō

References

1. ^ 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. neștine
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 146
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. neștine
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 713
5. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 869
6. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
7. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 101
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5899
9. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gn 13:17
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 204
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 157
12. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 442