nou

Forms

nou m or n (feminine singular nouă, plural noi)^[1] Old texts have the feminine noao: Neculce wrote „domnia îi era noao și nu ave bani să plătească” “his reign was new and he had no money to pay”.^[2][3] The feminine plural is noi, and also nouă, which is regional or dated.^[4][5][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin novus (“new”), which comes from Proto-Indo-European *néwos (“new”).^[6][3][1][2] De Vaan lists cognates across Indo-European, among them Ancient Greek νέος (néos), Sanskrit नव (náva) and Old Church Slavonic новъ (novŭ).^[7]

The adjective survives in all four branches: Aromanian nou, Megleno-Romanian nou and Istro-Romanian now.^{[6][8][9][10]} Its Romance cognates include Italian nuovo, Sardinian nou, French neuf, Catalan nou, Spanish nuevo and Portuguese novo.^[6][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nou appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[12] Tiktin cites the Codicele Voronețean (1 Peter 2:2), which also has the compound nou-născut “newborn”.^[13] MDA2 gives the Psaltirea Scheiană of about 1573–1578 as its first record.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The core sense, “made or come into being recently”, is defined in opposition to vechi “old”.^[2][13] The Bible of 1688 has „Nici bagă vinul cel nou în foi vechi” “neither do they put new wine into old bottles” (Matthew 9:17).^[13] Set names came from it: lună nouă and crai nou “new moon”, Noul Testament, and Lumea nouă for America.^[13][14] The adverbial phrase din nou (older de nou) means “again”.^[13][4]

Folk speech intensifies it with diminutives: nou-nouț “brand-new”.^[13][15] noutate “novelty” may be a Romanian derivative or continue novitās, and înnoi “to renew” is a Romanian verb.^[6][16] The 19th century had a short-lived novitale from Italian novità.^[6] Mai nou “lately” is recorded in the press from 1984.^[17]

Timeline

• early 16th century – nou in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[12]
• 16th century – nou and nou-născut in the Codicele Voronețean.^[13]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3]
• 1688 – „vinul cel nou” in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]
• 1825 – nou-nouț “brand-new” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[15]
• 1984 – mai nou “lately” in the press.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. new: made, created or discovered recently; appearing for the first time.^[14] Lună nouă is the new moon;^[14][3] Ce mai e nou? “what's new?”^[14][3]
2. Of crops or wine: from this year's harvest: vin nou.^[14]
3. Taking the place of an older thing; present-day, modern.^[14]
4. Recently made or bought; unused, in good condition.^[14]
5. Changed, renewed; improved.^[14]
6. Of people: newly in a position: un elev nou.^[3]

Noun

1. (neuter) The new, what is new, as against the old.^[14]

Word family

• noutate
• înnoi
• reînnoi
• nou-născut

Related words

• Aromanian nou
• Latin novus

Usage notes

Din nou “again” is the usual phrase: A încercat din nou.^[18][4] The proverb Sita nouă se pune în cui says that a new thing is handled with care.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. nou
3. ^ 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, 170
4. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 223
5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. nou
6. ^ a b c d e 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. nou
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 753
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 208
10. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 289
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5972
12. ^ 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 32:3
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. nou
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 722
15. ^ a b 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. 450
16. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. nou
17. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. nou
18. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. nou