primire

Forms

primire f (plural primiri)^[1] Older texts write priimire, and Tiktin also records preimire and premire.^[2] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has the form priimire five times, among them in Leviticus (Preoția) 22:22.^[3] Negruzzi still writes it so: „am găsit cea mai bună priimire” “I found the best welcome”.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian primi + -re, the long infinitive of the verb “to receive”, used as a noun.^[1][4][5][6] Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of the verb, beside primitor.^[4]

The verb comes from Old Church Slavonic приѩти (prijęti, “to take, receive”), present приимѫ (priimǫ).^[4][5][7] The verb had an old variant spelled ⟨priimi⟩.^[4] Ciorănescu compares Serbo-Croatian primiti.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581, in the sense “receiving, taking possession”.^[5][2] The passage is the parable of the talents, where both servants, „cela ce luo cinci talanți, și cela ce luo doi” “he who took five talents and he who took two”, are both found worthy of priimire.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From the act of receiving a thing, the noun came to mean the way a guest or visitor is received.^[2][8] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of the 17th century use priimire to render Slavonic words for “taking, receiving, acceptance”.^[9] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 gives five senses: receiving a guest, receiving money or letters, adopting a child, admitting a member to a society, and hospitality.^[10]

In the 19th century Damé glossed it with French réception and accueil and gave the phrase a da în primire “to hand over”.^[11] Scriban adds a colloquial a lua în primire “to start attacking someone”, and DEX records the sense “to scold” for the same phrase.^[12][8] In Moldova the word has also been recorded for a light meal served to guests.^[13]

Timeline

• 1581 – first record, in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[5][2]
• 1649 – priimire in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1688 – priimire in the Bucharest Bible.^[3]
• 1801 – primire in Klein's dictionary, glossed with Latin susceptio and acceptio.^[14]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda lists the senses “reception, receipt, adoption, admission, hospitality”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of receiving: taking possession of something offered, given or owed;^[8][5] a da în primire “to hand over”, a lua în primire “to take over”.^[8][5]
2. a lua (pe cineva) în primire: to take someone into one's care; colloquially, to start scolding someone.^[8][15]
3. The admission of a visitor; the way one is welcomed, a reception;^[8][2] de primire of visiting hours or rooms for visitors.^[8][2]
4. The attitude with which something is met: Romanul a avut o primire bună.^[8]
5. admission of someone into a company, an institution or an organization.^[8]

Related words

• primi
• primitor

Usage notes

The jocular expression a da în primire also means “to die”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. primire
3. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Preoția 22:22
4. ^ a b c d e 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. primi
5. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 540
6. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. primire
7. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 875
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. priimire
10. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 546
11. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. primire
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1050
13. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 244
14. ^ 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. 425
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. primire