niște

Forms

niște (plural indefinite article)^[1] The old form is nește, as in Neacșu's letter: „să știi cum se-au prins nește meșter den Țarigrad” “know that some craftsmen from Constantinople have undertaken”.^[2][3] An old genitive-dative plural neștor occurs in Dosoftei: „ca neștor dumnezei” “as to some gods”.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nesciō quid (“I don't know what”),^{[4][5][3][2][1]} from nesciō (“I don't know”) and quid (“what”).^[1] The same first element is in neștine “someone”, niscai “some” and nescît “a little”.^[6][7] It survives in Aromanian nishti and Megleno-Romanian niști.^[1][8][6]

Ciorănescu prefers a Romanian origin: the phrase nu știu ce “I don't know what”, reduced in speech to ⟨nuș' ce⟩; he allows that some of these compounds may go back directly to Latin.^[7] Pușcariu took it from a phrase of the type *non sapio qui and compared a Swiss German word for “someone”, literally “I don't know who”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Neacșu's letter of 1521, with the form nește.^[4][2][3] Coresi and Moxa write nește and niște in the 16th century, already as the plural of the indefinite article: „culegea nește așchii” “he was gathering some chips of wood”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the phrase “I don't know what” the word became an indefinite pronoun, “some, a certain”, and then the plural of the indefinite article un, o.^[4][2] Like the French partitive article it also stands before mass nouns: niște pâine “some bread”.^[2][5] Old texts use it before numerals, niște trei voinici “some three young men” (Varlaam), a use now obsolete.^[2][4] It is used only in the nominative and accusative; the genitive and dative use unor.^[9]

Timeline

• 1521 – nește in Neacșu's letter, the first record.^[4][2]
• 1589 – niște in Coresi's Psalter.^[10]
• 1648 – „pomenește de niște cuvinte” “mentions some words” in the New Testament.^[3]

Meanings

Article

1. some: the plural indefinite article, before plural nouns, for an indefinite number: Am cumpărat niște mere.^[5][1]
2. Before a noun naming a bad quality, it stresses the scorn: Sunt niște leneși!^[5]
3. Before mass or collective nouns in the singular, an indefinite quantity: Mai vrei niște supă?^[5]

Related words

• un
• o
• neștine
• niscai
• Aromanian nishti

Usage notes

The regional variant nește survives.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. níște
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. niște
4. ^ 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, 158
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 717
6. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 101
7. ^ a b 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. ști
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 743
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 873
10. ^ 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 127:4