necrezut

Forms

necrezut m or n (feminine singular necrezută, masculine plural necrezuți, feminine/neuter plural necrezute)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian ne- + crezut, the negative prefix on the past participle of crede “to believe”.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DELR lists it in the family of the verb.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is from Coresi's Tâlcul evangheliilor of 1567–1568, with the senses “unbelievable, unheard of” and “unbelieving”.^[5] Tiktin quotes Coresi's Omiliar of 1581 for the noun “unbeliever”: „Spre cădere amu necrezuților lui zace Domnul” “the Lord is set for the fall of those who do not believe in him”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts it could mean “unbelieving, one who does not believe”, which Tiktin records as a noun and DELR as a sense of the adjective; the 1688 Bible uses it in Romans 3:3.^[6][5][7] The sense “not to be believed, incredible” is the one the Lexicon of Buda (1825) gives, with Latin incredibilis and German unglaublich.^[8] Anton Pann has it in a couplet: „Și dac-a mea vorbă necrezută-ți pare” “and if my word seems unbelievable to you”.^[3][4]

From “incredible” it came to mean “extraordinary, unheard of”: Bălcescu describes an entry into a city „cu o pompă necrezută” “with unheard-of pomp”.^[3][9] The DEX and the DLR mark the word as old.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1567–1568 – first record, in Coresi's Tâlcul evangheliilor.^[5]
• 1581 – necrezuților “the unbelievers” in Coresi's Omiliar.^[6]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible, Romans 3:3.^[7]
• 1825 – “incredible” in the Lexicon of Buda.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (dated) unbelievable, incredible: not to be believed.^[2][3][1]
2. (dated) Extraordinary, unheard of, nemaipomenit: o bogăție necrezută.^[2][9]
3. (obsolete) Unbelieving; as a noun, an unbeliever.^[6][5]

Related words

• crede
• necredincios
• incredibil

Usage notes

The phrase de necrezut “unbelievable” is recorded by Damé and the CADE.^[10][11]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 699
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. necrezut
4. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 120
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. crede
6. ^ 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. necrezut
7. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Rom 3:3
8. ^ a b 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. 422
9. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 183
10. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. necrezut
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. necrezut