presus

Etymology

It is a compound from Romanian pre + sus, of the old form of the preposition pe and the adverb meaning “up”.^[1][2][3][4] The preposition is from Latin per, and the adverb is from Latin sūsum (“upwards”).^[4][5] Ciorănescu lists it and its opposite prejos among the compounds of the preposition, both used only in the comparative.^[4] Cihac had placed it under the adverb, glossing it “high, superior”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[7] MDA2 dates it from Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură (1581), where it means “beyond measure”: „mare fu și presus a robului iuțimea” “great and beyond measure was the servant's fury”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The adverb first meant “above, over” in space and soon “more than, beyond”, mostly in the comparative mai presus de or decât.^[3][2] A text of 1729 says of the righteous that he „mai presus decât soarele va străluci” “will shine brighter than the sun”, and church books spoke of the Word mai presus de ființă “beyond being”.^[3] The modern language keeps it only in that phrase, “more, greater, more important than”, and in mai presus de toate “above all”.^[1][8] MDA2 also records a rare adjective use, “supreme”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[7]
• c. 1551–1558 – in the Psaltirea Voronețeană.^[9]
• 1581 – presus “beyond measure” in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[2][3]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• 1729 – mai presus decât soarele “brighter than the sun”.^[3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. mai presus de (or decât): more, greater or more important than; above, beyond: Pentru el, onoarea era mai presus de bani.^[1][2]
2. mai presus de toate: above all, most of all.^[2][8]
3. (obsolete) Above, over something in space.^[2][3]

Related words

• sus
• pe
• prejos
• deasupra

Usage notes

Outside the phrase mai presus the word is obsolete;^[1][2] MDA2 also lists a very rare adjective “supreme”.^[1][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 870
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, 526
3. ^ 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. presús
4. ^ 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. pe
5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. sus
6. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 272
7. ^ 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, p. Ps 17:36
8. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 556
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 148:4
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. presus