preface

Forms

preface (present prefac, third-person singular preface, past participle prefăcut, subjunctive să prefacă), 3rd conjugation^[1][2] An old and regional form is priface: Alecsandri's comedy has „Trebuie mai întâi să ne prifacem numele” “first we must change our names”.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian pre- + face, on the model of Old Church Slavonic прѣтворити (prětvoriti, “to transform, change”), made of the same parts.^{[2][5][4][1][6]} Tiktin names the Slavonic verb as the model for “to remake, transform”, and for the reflexive “to pretend” a Slavonic verb of the same root with another prefix, used reflexively.^[7] Șăineanu (1929) derived it from Vulgar Latin *perfaciō for classical perficiō (“to complete”), a view the later dictionaries do not follow.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 gives prefac for Slavonic претворѧю “I transform”, and the lexicons of the 1660s give it also for притворѧю.^[9] MDA2 and Tiktin date the first record in running text to 1652, in Gaster's chrestomathy.^[4][7] Miron Costin's verse has „În lut și în cenușă te prefaci, o, oame!” “into clay and ashes you turn, O man!”.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was to change something into something else, or to be changed: Dosoftei's lives of the saints has the potter who remade the broken vessel, „de iznoavă prăfăcut”.^[7][5] The old language also used it for “to translate” and “to transfer”.^[4][7] The concrete sense “to remake, repair, renovate” clothes, household objects or buildings followed, and in the regions a range of kitchen and cellar senses: to knead dough, to stir polenta, to distil plum brandy a second time, to rack wine.^[4][2] Tiktin and MDA2 also record the falsifying of wine with water and the disguising of one's voice.^[7][4]

The reflexive a se preface “to pretend, feign” is the sense in most use today.^[1][2] DLR's quotations for it start in 1848: se prefăcu a crede “pretended to believe”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1649 – prefac for Slavonic претворѧю in Mardarie's lexicon.^[9]
• 1652 – first record in running text, “to transform”.^[4][7]
• 1848 – the reflexive “to pretend” in a periodical quoted by DLR.^[5]
• 1862 – Pontbriant gives “to change, transform” and “to adulterate” wine.^[10]
• 1875 – Antonescu gives the reflexive “to feign, dissimulate”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive, often with în) To give or take a new form or content; to transform, change: Vrăjitoarea l-a prefăcut în broască. “The witch turned him into a frog.”^[2][4][1]
2. (transitive) To remake or repair an object, changing its look in part or entirely.^[2][4]
3. (reflexive) To try to give a false impression by one's manner, in order to mislead; to pretend, feign: Se preface că doarme. “He is pretending to sleep.”^[2][7][1]
4. (regional) To knead dough; to distil plum brandy a second time; to rack wine.^[4]

Word family

• prefacere
• prefăcăciune
• prefăcător
• prefăcătură
• prefăcut

Related words

• preschimba
• face
• reface

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 865
3. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 544
4. ^ 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, 514
5. ^ 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. preface
6. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. preface
8. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 505
9. ^ 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. prefac
10. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 575
11. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 241