pregeta

Forms

pregeta (third-person singular present pregetă, past participle pregetat) 1st conjugation^[1] The Codicele Voronețean spells it preaget-: „se nu preagete întru vremi”.^[2] Old variants are pregita and prejeta, and an old present pregetez.^[3] Barac writes prejeta: „Nimic nu prejetam” “I spared nothing”.^[4]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *prigitō (“to hesitate”), a form with the consonants transposed, from Late Latin pīgritor (“to be slow”).^[5][6][3] Ciorănescu follows Candrea–Densusianu, an article by Candrea in the journal Romania, and the REW.^[5][7] Tiktin and the DLR derive it from the Latin verb without the transposition, and the DLRM explains the starred form by Latin pigritia (“sloth”).^[4][2][8] Latin pīgritor is a frequentative of pigror (“to be slow, hesitate”), and pīgrō is formed from piger (“slow, lazy”).^[1][9]

Scriban derived it from Latin prae- and agitō (“to drive, stir”), which Ciorănescu and Wiktionary find less likely.^[5][1] Șăineanu compared a Slavonic verb meaning “to put off”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), which urges one „se nu preagete întru vremi” “not to be slack at any time”.^[3][2][4]

Semantic evolution

The verb is used mostly in the negative.^[2][11] Its main sense is to hesitate before doing something, and by extension to delay, linger or stay idle.^[3][6] Old texts also use it transitively, “to neglect” or “to spare”: Dosoftei warns that one must not neglect the good of the soul, and the Bible of 1688 has „nu pregetați cu ochii de vasele voastre” “do not mind your goods”.^[4][12] The Evanghelia învățătoare of 1644 says of careless priests that they are slow and take no care of people's salvation.^[4] The present participle nepregetând “without delay” occurs in Dosoftei.^[4][2]

Timeline

• c. 1563-1583 – preagete in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3][2]
• before 1642 – nu pregetareți in a letter.^[2]
• 1644 – the Evanghelia învățătoare.^[4]
• c. 1660 – pregetat in the lexicon Lex.St.^[13]
• 1688 – nu pregetați in the Bucharest Bible.^[12]
• 1869 – Barițiu uses it to render a Hungarian verb for being idle.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, popular, mostly in the negative) To hesitate, to waver before doing something.^[6][15][1]
2. (by extension) To delay, linger; to be idle.^[6][3]
3. (transitive, rare) To stop someone from acting, to hinder.^[3]
4. (transitive, obsolete) To spare.^[3][8][1]

Word family

• preget
• pregetător

Usage notes

The usual construction is a nu pregeta să or a nu pregeta a “not to hesitate to”.^[11][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pregeta
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 516
4. ^ 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. pregeta
5. ^ a b c 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. pregeta
6. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 866
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6492
8. ^ a b Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 655
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 506
11. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 546
12. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gn 45:20
13. ^ 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. pregetat
14. ^ Barițiu, George (1869), Dictionariu unguresc-romanescu, Brașov, p. 351
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. pregeta