preda

Forms

preda (third-person singular present predă, past participle predat, third-person subjunctive predea), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic прѣдати (prědati, “to hand over”), conjugated like da “to give”.^[2][3][1][4] Tiktin also allows the word to have come through another Slavic language.^[5] The DLR and MDA2 derive it within Romanian, from Romanian pre- + da, with the Slavonic verb as a model.^[6][7] The Slavonic verb continues Proto-Slavic *perdati, from *per- (“over, through”) and *dati (“to give”).^[1]

It is found south of the Danube as Aromanian pridau and Megleno-Romanian pridau;^[2][8] Capidan derives the Megleno-Romanian verb from Bulgarian.^[2][8] The old noun predanie “betrayal; tradition”, from прѣданиѥ (prědanije), is recorded from 1643.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The roPsalt index lists a form predară under the verb in Coresi's Psalter of 1570 (Psalm 105).^[9] The DLR's first dated quotation is from 1745: „s-au predat toate dresele moșiilor” “all the deeds of the estates were handed over”.^[6] Tiktin's first date is 1814, and MDA2 starts from Polizu's dictionary of 1857.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, to hand something over into someone's keeping, is the Slavonic one, and the old noun predanie meant both “betrayal” and “tradition”, the handing down of teaching.^[6][4][7]

The school sense “to teach a subject” is in Tiktin's quotation from Ion Ghica, of young men sent to France to teach the higher sciences on their return.^[5] MDA2 gives the old synonym a paradosi for it, and the DLR the same word for the first sense.^[7][6]

Timeline

• 1570 – predară in Coresi's Psalter, as indexed by roPsalt.^[9]
• 1643 – the noun predanie “betrayal” in Varlaam's Cazania.^[7]
• 1745 – s-au predat “were handed over” of estate deeds.^[6]
• 1814 – Tiktin's first record.^[5]
• 1857 – in Polizu's Romanian–German dictionary.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To hand over something to someone who has a right to it or must answer for it; to deliver, entrust.^[3][7][1]
2. (reflexive) To surrender, to give oneself up to the enemy or to the police;^[3][7] (transitive) to deliver someone into the hands of another.^[3][7]
3. (transitive or intransitive) To teach a subject in a school or a course; to give a lesson.^[3][5]

Word family

• predare

Related words

• da
• predanie
• Old Church Slavonic прѣдати (prědati)

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated like da: predau, predai, predă; popular forms are a subjunctive să predeie and a regional simple past predete.^[7][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. preda
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 864
4. ^ a b Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. preda
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. preda
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 512
8. ^ a b Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 232
9. ^ 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