nepot

Forms

nepot m (plural nepoți, feminine equivalent nepoată)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nepōs (“grandson; nephew; descendant”), continued in its accusative nepōtem.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Tiktin derives it more exactly from a Vulgar Latin *nepōtus, split off from the Latin noun beside a feminine *nepōta.^[6] Ciorănescu takes the feminine nepoată to be a Romanian formation and finds a Latin feminine of that kind, or a *nepōtia, (REW) unnecessary.^[2] The Latin word comes from *népōts, which de Vaan reconstructs as *h₂nep-ōt- (“a male descendant other than a son”).^[1][7] Its relatives include Albanian nip, Old English nefa and Old High German nevo.^[7]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian nipot, Megleno-Romanian nipot and Istro-Romanian nepot.^{[2][8][9][10]} Its Romance cognates include Italian nipote, Sardinian nebode, French neveu, Catalan nebot and Occitan nebot.^[2][5] Ciorănescu notes, after Meillet, that the use of one word for “grandson” and “nephew”, as in Italian, goes back to Indo-European.^[2] Hungarian nepotya was borrowed from Romanian.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1427.^[6] MDA2's first record is Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581, which lists the kin who will not stand by a man: „nici tată-tău, nici muma, nici feciorul, nici fata, nici nepoții-ți” “neither your father nor your mother, neither son nor daughter, nor your grandchildren”.^[4][11]

Semantic evolution

Romanian kept both Latin senses, the child of one's child and the child of one's brother or sister; where it matters, the second is nepot de frate or nepot de soră, as in Dosoftei's Lot, „nepotului său de frate” “his brother's son”.^[6][3] In the plural it also means descendants in general.^[3][4] Familiar speech uses the vocative to address any younger person.^[3]

Folk usage calls a child nepot (or nepot de buric) in relation to the midwife who delivered it, and the mother is her nepoată.^[4][6][12] In slang a nepot is a gullible dupe.^[13]

Timeline

• 1427 – first record.^[6]
• 1581 – nepoții “the grandchildren” in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[4][11]
• 1619 – „nepotul lui Calapod” “Calapod's grandson” in a deed of sale.^[11]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible, at Tobit 1:22.^[14]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda glosses it with Latin nepos and German Enkel, Neffe.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. grandson: a person's son's or daughter's son.^[3][1]
2. nephew: the son of one's brother or sister, often nepot de frate, nepot de soră.^[3][4][1]
3. (familiar, especially in the vocative) A form of address used by an older person to a young man or a child: Ia stai, nepoate, nu te grăbi!^[3]
4. (usually in the plural) A descendant.^[3][1]
5. (popular) A child in relation to the midwife who delivered it.^[4][12]
6. (slang) A dupe, someone easily cheated.^[13]

Word family

• nepoată
• nepoțel
• nepoție
• strănepot
• strănepoată

Related words

• nepotism
• Aromanian nipot
• Latin nepōs

Usage notes

Nepot de nepot is a rare name for a great-grandson, usually strănepot.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. nepot
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. 709
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 140
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5890
6. ^ 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. nepot
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 770
9. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 129
10. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 287
11. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. nepot
12. ^ a b Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. 282
13. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. nepot
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Tob 1:22
15. ^ 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. 436