negreață

Forms

negreață f (plural negreți)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nigritia (“blackness”), or a derivative from Romanian negru + -eață: DEX, DLR and MDA2 give both explanations.^[2][3][4][1] Tiktin, Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and the REW take the Latin word;^[5][6][7] Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of negru.^[8] The Latin noun is formed on niger (“black”) with the suffix -itia.^[9][1]

The Megleno-Romanian form is nigreață.^[1][7] The Romance cognates include Romansh nairezza and Italian negrezza.^[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the Cazania of Govora of 1642.^[5] MDA2 dates it from Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686), where a multitude of very black people “did not all have the same blackness”.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word means the quality of being black, a black colour.^[2][3] Cantemir has the proverb-like line that neither the raven can change its blackness nor the leopard its spots.^[5][3] From the colour it passed to a black thing, creature or spot; in Antim's sermons Satan becomes blacker than all the black things.^[3][4] Later writers used it for soot, as in Vlahuță, where children smear the black from the oven's mouth on their faces as moustaches.^[5] A regional glossary gives it as “a black thing”.^[10]

Timeline

• 1642 – in the Cazania of Govora, the first record.^[5]
• 1682–1686 – “blackness” in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[4][3]
• 1688 – negreață in the Bucharest Bible (Sirach 19:23).^[11]
• 1773 – a blackness mixed with yellow, in a text of Gaster's chrestomathy.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. blackness: the quality of being black; a black colour.^[2][1]
2. A black spot or black thing.^[2][3][1]

Related words

• negreală
• negru
• Latin nigritia

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. 703
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. negreață
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 127
5. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. negreață
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5921
7. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. negreață
8. ^ 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. negru
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Sirach 19:23