neapărat

Forms

neapărat (adverb); as an adjective m or n (feminine singular neapărată, masculine plural neapărați, feminine/neuter plural neapărate)^[1][2] The Codicele Voronețean writes neapăratu with the final ⟨u⟩ of the old texts: Paul taught “with all boldness, neapăratu”, unhindered (Acts 28:31).^[3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian ne- + apărat, the negative of the participle of apăra.^[2][3][5][1] The verb had the older sense “to stop, hinder, forbid” beside “to defend”, and the oldest senses of the adjective, “unhindered, unceasing”, come from it.^[3][4] DELR derives the verb from Latin apparō (“to prepare”), with a shift from “to prepare against” to “to stop, to defend”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The 16th-century psalters and the Codicele Voronețean record it in the sense “not hindered, unceasing”: the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century has the plural neapărate in a psalm verse about proclaiming God's righteousness with lips not held back (Psalm 39).^[7][3] The Codicele Voronețean uses it adverbially for Paul's teaching “unhindered” (Acts 28:31), where the New Testament of 1648 has „fără opreală” and the Bible of 1688 „fără contenire”.^[3][4] MDA2 dates it from Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From “that cannot be stopped” the adjective moved to “unavoidable, inevitable”: Dosoftei writes of „moartea cea neapărată”, the death that cannot be escaped.^[3] It also came to mean “necessary, obligatory”, above all with words for need: neapărată trebuință, neapărată nevoie “absolute necessity”, used from the 17th-century translation of the Învățăturile lui Neagoe on.^[3][8] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss it with words for “unhindered”.^[9]

The adverb “necessarily, without fail” appears in 1773 before an adjective (neapărat trebuincioasă “absolutely needed”); it stands on its own from the early 19th century on its own, in Beldiman and in laws of 1828.^[3] It is now the main use of the word; the literal adjective “undefended, unfortified” and the sense “inevitable” are rare, and the adjective “necessary” is dated outside fixed phrases.^[2][8]

Timeline

• early 16th century – neapărate “unrestrained” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[7][3]
• c. 1563–1583 – neapăratu “unhindered” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3][4]
• 1581 – Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură, MDA2's first record.^[5]
• 1649 – glossed in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1773 – neapărat trebuincioasă “absolutely necessary”, the adverb before an adjective.^[3]
• 1828 – the adverb “without fail” in a law.^[3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. necessarily, at any cost, without fail: Trebuie neapărat să vii mâine.^[2][5][1]
2. Certainly, absolutely.^[5][10]

Adjective

1. indispensable, absolutely needed; chiefly in a fi de neapărată nevoie “to be absolutely necessary”.^[2]
2. (rare) inevitable, that cannot be avoided or resisted.^[2]
3. (rare) undefended, unfortified.^[5][3][1]

Related words

• apăra
• apărare
• negreșit

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 696
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. neapărat
4. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. neapărat
5. ^ 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, 114
6. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. apăra
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 39:12
8. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 179
9. ^ 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. neapărat
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 859