ospăț

Forms

ospăț n (plural ospețe)^[1] The old texts write uspăț: the Palia of 1581–1582 has „[făcu] uspăț tuturor slugilor sale” “[he made] a feast for all his servants”.^[2] Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581 has the plural uspeațe: „de mease și de uspeațe” “of tables and feasts”.^[2][3] The plural is ospețe, rarely ospățuri.^[4][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin hospitium (“hospitality, lodging”).^{[5][3][2][6][1]} It survives in Aromanian uspeț, which also means “visit”.^[5][6] The Latin word is formed on hospes (“host, guest”).^[1]

The REW lists it beside Modern Greek σπίτι (spíti, “house”), from which Albanian shtëpi was borrowed.^[7][5] Ciorănescu reports Rosetti's view that only Romanian has kept the Latin word.^[5] Romanian later borrowed the same Latin family through French: ospiciu, ospitalier and ospitalitate.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581, where the plural uspeațe means “feasts”.^[3][2] The Palia de la Orăștie of 1581–1582 has uspăț “feast” in the story of Pharaoh's birthday.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Latin hospitium meant hospitality and lodging; in Romanian the word came to mean the meal offered to guests, a banquet.^[5][2] Ciorănescu points to Todoran's study of this change of sense.^[5] Pușcariu regarded it as a bookish word in Romanian.^[6]

In the old and popular language it also meant simply a meal, food: Herodotus's translation of 1645 has ospăți beside sălaș “lodging”.^[2][4] Mardarie's lexicon of 1649 glosses uspăț with Slavonic words for an inn, hospitality and a feast.^[8] DEX now labels the main sense old and popular.^[4]

Timeline

• 1581 – the plural uspeațe “feasts” in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[3][2]
• 1581–1582 – uspăț in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[2]
• 1645 – “meal, food” in a translation of Herodotus.^[2]
• 1649 – uspăț in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[8]
• 1688 – ospăț in the Bucharest Bible, more than 40 times.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A feast, a banquet: a large, rich meal held on a festive occasion, such as a wedding or a holiday.^[4][3][1]
2. (old and popular) A meal, plentiful food.^[4][2]

Word family

• ospeție
• ospețime

Related words

• oaspete
• ospăta
• ospiciu
• Aromanian uspeț

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. ospăț
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, 232
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 755
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ospăț
6. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 107
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4200
8. ^ a b 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. uspăț
9. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Genesis 19:3