până

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Latin paene (“almost”) followed by ad (“to”), “almost to”.^[2][1][3][4] Ciorănescu, citing Cipariu, Pușcariu, Tiktin and the REW, accepts this source but finds the derivation unclear.^[4][5] Pușcariu thought that the widespread form ⟨pără⟩ and the vowels of the Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian forms point rather to porrō (“further”) with the same preposition, “further to”, and that the forms with /n/ may come from assimilation in the frequent ⟨pără în⟩.^[6] Ciorănescu calls Crețu's Vulgar Latin *pro ad improbable.^[4]

The word has cognates in all four branches: Aromanian pãnã, Megleno-Romanian pănă and Istro-Romanian pire.^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to the Hurmuzaki Psalter of the early 16th century.^[2] Tiktin cites it from the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 4:3).^[7]

Semantic evolution

The preposition marks a limit in space or time, and is usually joined to other prepositions: până la, până în, până spre.^[4][8] As a conjunction it means “until” and, with a negation, “before”; it also forms până ce, până când and până unde.^[4][8] The Bible of 1688 asks: „Pănă când păcătoșii se vor făli?” “How long shall the sinners boast?” (Psalm 93:3).^[7] Followed by și, it means “even”.^[1]

MDA2 records many variants: pănă, pără, păr, pân and the regional par, pâră, pene and pună.^[2]

Timeline

• early 16th century – first record, in the Hurmuzaki Psalter.^[2]
• 1570 – pînă in Coresi's psalter.^[9]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[7]
• 1649 – Mardarie's lexicon uses pînă to gloss Slavonic даже and доколѣ.^[10]
• 1688 – pănă când “how long” in the Bucharest Bible.^[7]

Meanings

Preposition

1. until, till, up to (a point in time): până mâine “until tomorrow”;^[8][1] până la urmă “in the end”.^[8][1]
2. As far as, up to (a place): până acasă “as far as home”;^[8][1] de sus până jos “from top to bottom”.^[8][1]

Conjunction

1. Until; with a negation, “before”: până a nu “before”.^[8][7]
2. As long as, while.^[4][8]
3. As far as, to where: până unde “as far as”.^[8]

Adverb

1. With și: even.^[1]

Related words

• Aromanian pãnã
• Latin paene

Usage notes

From 1953 to 1993 the standard spelling was pînă.^[1] Locutions: până când, până ce “until”, până una-alta “for the time being”.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
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, 318
3. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. până
4. ^ 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. pînă
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6669
6. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 116
7. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. până
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 792
9. ^ 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 9:19
10. ^ 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. pînă