nostru

Forms

nostru m or n (feminine singular noastră, masculine plural noștri, feminine/neuter plural noastre)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin noster (“our”), feminine nostra.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} It survives in all four branches: Aromanian nostru, Megleno-Romanian nostru and Istro-Romanian nostru.^{[2][6][7][8][9]} Its Romance cognates include Italian nostro, French notre, Spanish nuestro and Portuguese nosso.^[2][5]

The regional short forms nost and noastă match Aromanian nost.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century already uses it often, for instance in Psalm 8:9.^[10] MDA2 dates its first record to the Codicele Voronețean of about 1563.^[3]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it stands after the noun without an article (casa noastră “our house”); before the noun, or as a pronoun, it takes the article al, a, ai, ale.^[4][11] In popular speech ai noștri means one's family or one's own people, and ale noastre one's own affairs.^[4] It also serves as a plural of modesty for “my”, as in an author's cartea noastră “our book”.^[4] MDA2 records old and popular variants nost, noastă, nostă and a diminutive nostruș.^[3]

Timeline

• early 16th century – in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[10]
• c. 1563 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]
• 1649 – nostru and noastră in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. With al, a, ai, ale: ours, what belongs to the speaker and the group the speaker is part of: Mașina lor e mai nouă decât a noastră.^[4][1]
2. (popular) ai noștri: our family, our people: Ai noștri sosesc mâine.^[4]
3. ale noastre: our things, our affairs.^[4]

Determiner

1. our: belonging to or owned by us: grădina noastră.^[4][1]
2. Of parts of the body and relationships: mâinile noastre, vecinii noștri.^[4]
3. Done or said by us: decizia noastră.^[4]
4. As a plural of modesty, “my”.^[4]
5. With an objective sense: Prietenii au sărit în ajutorul nostru. “Our friends rushed to our help.”.^[4]

Related words

• noi
• Latin noster

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. nostru
3. ^ 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, 168
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 722
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5961
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 779
7. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 289
8. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
9. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 129
10. ^ 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 8:9
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 222
12. ^ 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. nostru