povesti

Forms

povesti (third-person singular present povestește, past participle povestit), 4th conjugation^[1] Old and regional variants are povisti and povăsti.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian poveste (“story, tale”) + -i.^{[3][2][4][5][1]} Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of the noun, beside povestaș.^[6]

The noun is from Old Church Slavonic повѣсть (pověstĭ, “tale, narration”), from Proto-Slavic *pověstь, formed *po- + *věstь (“message”).^[6][2][1] It is related to veste “news”.^[6] Its Slavic cognates include Serbo-Croatian povest (“history”) and Russian повесть (povestʹ, “narrative, story”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1563, in Coresi's Praxiu, with the sense “to tell someone something”.^[4] MDA2 gives a text of before 1600.^[2] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has „Și povesti cel mai mare peste păharnici visul lui cătră Iosif” “and the chief butler told his dream to Joseph” (Genesis 40:9).^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The core sense, to recount events in order, real or presented as real, runs through the old texts: the New Testament of 1648, Dosoftei, Constantin Cantacuzino, Bălcescu, Alecsandri.^[5] In the old church language it could also mean to proclaim or preach, and in the old language a reflexive form meant “to be mentioned”.^[2]

Telling soon became talking: Klein's dictionary of 1801 glosses the verb with Latin narro and confabulor “to talk together”,^[7] Tiktin records an intransitive “to chat”,^[4] and in Maramureș the reflexive a se povesti means “to talk together”.^[8] Telling tales about someone gave the old and regional sense “to run down, to gossip about”.^[3][2] Tiktin quotes „Azi fac curte și mâne te râd povestindu-te” “today they court you and tomorrow they laugh at you, telling tales about you”.^[4] Ciorănescu notes that Transylvanian Saxon borrowed the noun and the verb from Romanian.^[6]

Timeline

• 1563 – first record, in Coresi's Praxiu.^[4]
• before 1600 – in a text of the Cuvente den bătrâni.^[2]
• 1648 – in the New Testament.^[5]
• 1688 – frequent in the Bucharest Bible: „Și povesti cel mai mare peste păharnici visul lui”.^[4]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses it with Latin “to tell” and “to converse”.^[7]
• 1862 – Pontbriant gives French “raconter, relater, narrer, conter”.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tell a story, to narrate an event or a happening: Bunicul ne-a povestit cum a fost la război.^[3][2]
2. (regional) To talk with someone, to chat.^[3][2]
3. (dated, regional) To run someone down, to slander or gossip about them.^[3][2]

Word family

• povestire
• povestitor

Related words

• poveste
• veste

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 494
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 858
4. ^ 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. povestí
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. povesti
6. ^ 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. poveste
7. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 423
8. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. povestí
9. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 570