nouă

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin novem (“nine”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The Latin numeral continues Proto-Indo-European *h₁néwn̥.^[1][7]

It survives in Aromanian noauã and Megleno-Romanian noauă.^[2][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian nove, Occitan nou, French neuf, Spanish nueve and Portuguese nove.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Gospel text of 1551–1553, in the heading of Matthew 14:21.^[5] MDA2 and the DLR cite Coresi's book of sermons of 1581, with noao sute “nine hundred”.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Besides the number, the word names the figure 9 and the mark nine in school.^[4] It forms the numerals nouăsprezece “nineteen” and nouăzeci “ninety”.^[5][2] Nine is a number of folk sayings: a avea nouă vieți “to have nine lives”, nouă băieri la pungă “nine strings on one's purse” for a miser, and peste nouă mări și nouă țări “over nine seas and nine lands”, very far away.^[4][3] Old texts often spell it noao.^[3][6]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – first record, in a Gospel text.^[5]
• 1581 – noao sute “nine hundred” in Coresi's book of sermons.^[3][6]
• c. 1625 – nouă steaguri boierești “nine boyar banners”.^[6]

Meanings

Numeral

1. nine: the number between eight and ten, written 9 or IX.^[4][3][1]

Noun

1. The figure 9; the mark nine.^[4]

Word family

• nouăzeci
• nouăsprezece

Related words

• Latin novem

Usage notes

Nouă is also the feminine singular of the adjective nou “new”^[4] and the dative of the pronoun noi “we”.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. nouă
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, 170
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 722
5. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. nouă
6. ^ 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. nouă
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. ^ 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
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5968
10. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 719