printre

Forms

printre^[1] Popular variants are pintre and pântre.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a compound from Romanian pre + între (“between”), the first part being the older form of the preposition pe.^{[2][4][3][5][1]} Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of the second part and takes it as compounded with prin.^[6] Tiktin warns that it is not to be confused with ⟨printr-⟩ and ⟨printru⟩, forms of the latter.^[3] The two parts go back to Latin per and inter.^[7][6]

Candrea and Densusianu took the word straight from these two Latin words, comparing Aromanian printră and Istro-Romanian printre.^[8] Papahagi and Pascu also derive the Aromanian word from them, and Byhan and Popovici the Istro-Romanian one.^{[9][10][11][12]} Wiktionary allows the same Latin source as a possibility.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1646, in the Pravila of Vasile Lupu, the Moldavian law code that MDA2 also cites.^[3][4] Mardarie's lexicon of 1649 uses it to render Slavonic words for “past” and “through”.^[13] A 17th-century manuscript describes a landscape: „Printre aceste dealure multe sunt sate dese și frumoase” “among these hills there are many villages, close together and beautiful”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is position among things or people scattered over a space; from it comes movement along a winding path between them: umbla printre mese “he walked among the tables”.^[4][5] It also marks a place in an interval between two stages of an action, and rarely stands for prin “through” or dintre “from among”.^[2] In folk poetry the variant pintre is usual: „Să șed pintre floricele” “to sit among the little flowers”.^[5][3]

Timeline

• 1646 – first record, in the Pravila of Vasile Lupu.^[3]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 17th century – printre aceste dealure “among these hills” in a manuscript.^[3]

Meanings

Preposition

1. among, in the midst of; specifically in the space between several beings or objects: trecea printre copaci “he passed among the trees”.^[2][1]
2. In the interval between two stages or moments of an action.^[2]
3. (rare) through; prin.^[2]
4. (rare) From among; dintre.^[2]

Related words

• prin
• între
• pe
• Aromanian printră

Usage notes

A common phrase is a scăpa printre degete “to slip through one's fingers”.^[14][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. 876
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. printre
4. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 545
5. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. printre
6. ^ a b 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. între
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. printre
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 880
10. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 171
11. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 319
12. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 140
13. ^ 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. printre
14. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 578