odinioară

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian o + dinioară: the old adverb dinioară “once” preceded by o.^[1][2][3] The old adverb goes back to Latin dē (“from”) ūna (“one”) hōra (“hour”), “at one time”.^[4][5][3] Tiktin explains the initial vowel by the model of odată, and old variants such as dănăoară by the hard vowels that follow, as in dăunăzi.^[5]

Ciorănescu finds Candrea's alternative, a Romanian phrase of de, una and oară on the model of de două ori (“twice”), harder to accept, since Romanian would then have the reduced article rather than the full numeral.^[4] Scriban gives both explanations.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The forms dinioară and dinrăoară appear in the Codicele Voronețean, and dinioară in Coresi's Psalter of 1570, where God has spoken „once”.^[5][7] The old sense was “once, a single time”: the Palia of 1581 has Abraham ask „lasă să grăiesc încă numai dinioară” “let me speak just once more”.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

From “once, a single time” the adverb moved to “at one time, formerly”, with verbs in the past, a sense recorded from the 1640s; this is the main modern sense.^[8][1] With verbs in the future it meant “some day”, a sense now obsolete.^[9][2] Nici odinioară “not once” was the old word for “never”, whose construction was copied in niciodată.^[4][5] The related forms adineaori and adineauri took the opposite sense “a moment ago”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1563-1583 – dinioară and dinrăoară in the Codicele Voronețean.^[5]
• 1570 – dinioară “once” in Coresi's Psalter.^[7]
• c. 1573 – dănăoară in the Psaltirea Scheiană, MDA2's first record.^[10][2]
• 1581 – dinioară in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[8]
• 1645 – odănăoară “formerly” in a translation of Herodotus.^[8]
• 1648 – odinioară “formerly”.^[8]
• 1688 – vre-odinioară and nici-odinioară in the Bucharest Bible.^[5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. In the old days, formerly, once: Odinioară aici era o pădure. “There used to be a forest here.”^[1][3]
2. (obsolete) Some day, at some time in the future.^[1][9]
3. (obsolete) Once, a single time.^[2][8]

Related words

• oară
• odată
• niciodată

References

1. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 735
2. ^ 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, 196
3. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
4. ^ 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. odinioară
5. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. odinioară
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 892
7. ^ 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 61:11
8. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. odinioară
9. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 254
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 88:35