nicăieri

Forms

nicăieri (adverb, invariable)^[1] Old and regional forms include nicăiri, nicăiuri, nicăirea and necăiurilea, the last in the Bucharest Bible of 1688.^[2][3] Creangă writes nicăiurea: „ca la casa omului nu-i nicăiurea” “there is no place like home”.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nec aliubi (“nor elsewhere”), from nec (“nor, and not”) and aliubi (“elsewhere”), according to Pușcariu, Pascu, Tiktin and DEX.^[4][2][5][1] The adverb aiurea continues that Latin adverb alone.^[2] Ciorănescu prefers the Latin negation followed by a combination of the type Vulgar Latin *alibi volet, as in that adverb.^[4]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian necal'urea and Megleno-Romanian nicăl'ura.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1563, in Coresi's Praxiu (the Acts and Epistles).^[2] MDA2 dates it to the Palia of 1581.^[3] The sense was the modern one, “nowhere”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The adverb has kept its sense “in no place, in no direction”, mostly in negative clauses.^[5][7] MDA2 adds “in no other case” and “to no one”, and, in particular uses, “aimlessly” and “into the unknown”.^[3] It can stand alone with the verb left out: iepele nicăieri “the mares were nowhere to be found”, in Eminescu.^[7] The many variants with -ri, -rea and -urea are regional or old.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 1563 – Coresi's Praxiu, the first record.^[2]
• 1581 – the Palia, the first record in MDA2.^[3]
• 1688 – necăiurilea in the Bucharest Bible (1 Kings 2:37).^[2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. nowhere: in no place, in no other part.^[5][1]
2. In no other case, to no one.^[5][3]

Related words

• aiurea
• niciunde
• Aromanian necal'urea

Usage notes

The adverb is used mostly in negative clauses: Nu l-am văzut nicăieri.^[5] DEX lists nicăierea, nicăirea, nicăiri and nicăiurea as regional variants.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c 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. nicăieri
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 153
4. ^ 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. nicăieri
5. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 715
6. ^ 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. 1, 33
7. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 208