nevoie

Forms

nevoie f (plural nevoi)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic неволꙗ (nevolja, “necessity, constraint”), one of the Slavonic loans of the old language.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary says only that it came from South Slavic, and the Bulgarian etymological dictionary names Bulgarian as the source of the Romanian, Hungarian and Albanian words.^[1][5] The Slavic word goes back to Proto-Slavic *nevoľa, formed with *ne- (“not”) on *voľa (“will”), so it first meant “what is against one's will”.^[1][5] In Old Church Slavonic it rendered Ancient Greek ἀνάγκη (anánkē, “necessity”).^[6]

The same Slavic word passed into Hungarian nyavalya, recorded from 1211, and Albanian nevojë.^[5][7] Ciorănescu compares Bulgarian неволя (nevolja), Serbo-Croatian nevolja and the Hungarian word, and refers to voie, the Romanian word from the base.^[2] The word also occurs south of the Danube: Aromanian nevol'e and Megleno-Romanian nivol'ă, which Capidan derives from Bulgarian.^[2][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Slavonic-Romanian document of 1499.^[10] The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century has it at Psalms 30:9 and 43:21, and MDA2 cites the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[11][3] The early texts use it for distress and hardship: the Palia of 1581 has „Căutat-au Domnul nevoia mea” “the Lord has looked upon my affliction”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Tiktin's basic gloss is need in the sense of being forced and being in distress.^[10] Ureche's proverb „la unul nevoie și la altul bună voie” “for one constraint, for another good will” sets it against voie.^[10] From constraint the word came to mean necessity, as in fără de nevoie “without need” in a calendar of 1733.^[10] The 17th-century lexicons use it to gloss Slavonic words for “trouble, misfortune” and “need”.^[12]

Today the main sense is need or necessity, beside poverty and hardship; the plural once also meant “business, affairs”.^[13] Popular speech uses it as an epithet for a poor, helpless person.^[13]

Timeline

• 1499 – a Slavonic-Romanian document, the first record.^[10]
• c. 1500-1520 – nevoie and the plural nevoile in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[11][14]
• c. 1573-1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1581 – nevoia “affliction” in the Palia of Orăștie.^[4]
• 1618 – „pentru nevoia ce iaste acmu” “because of the present need” in a letter.^[4]
• 1649 – used in Mardarie's lexicon to gloss Slavonic бѣда “misfortune”.^[12]
• 1733 – fără de nevoie “needlessly” in a calendar.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. need, necessity; a pressing matter.^[13] La nevoie “if need be”;^[13][3] a avea nevoie de “to need”: Am nevoie de o pauză. “I need a break.”^[13][3]
2. De voie, de nevoie “willy-nilly, under constraint”.^[13][10]
3. (in the plural) a-și face nevoile “to relieve oneself”.^[13]
4. poverty, want, financial straits;^[13] (popular) a poor, helpless person.^[13]
5. Trouble, hardship, misfortune; in the plural, trials and difficulties.^[13][15]
6. (obsolete, in the plural) Business, affairs.^[13]

Word family

• nevoi
• nevoiaș
• anevoie
• nevoitor

Related words

• voie
• Old Church Slavonic неволꙗ (nevolja)

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. nevoie
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 151
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. nevoie
5. ^ a b c Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 4, 592
6. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
7. ^ Çabej, Eqrem (2002), Studime etimologjike në fushë të shqipes VI (N–Rr), Tiranë, p. 50
8. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 2, 201
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 207
10. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. nevoie
11. ^ 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 30:9
12. ^ 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. nevoie
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 715
14. ^ 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 24:18
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. nevoie