pustiu

Forms

pustiu m or n (feminine singular pustie, plural pustii)^[1] A 16th-century psalter also has the older noun pustinie: „și-i sui ca turma în pustinie” “and he led them up like a flock into the wilderness”.^[2] MDA2 lists old and regional variants such as pustin, pustiniu, postine and pustân.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic поустꙑни (pustyni, “desert, wilderness”), the Old Church Slavonic noun, with Bulgarian пустиня (pustinja) named beside it by MDA2, the DLR and Tiktin.^[3][2][4][1] Ciorănescu names the adjective поустъ (pustŭ, “empty, desolate”) as well as the noun.^[5] The Slavonic noun is formed on that adjective, from Proto-Slavic *pustyni and *pustъ.^[1][6] In the Slavonic Gospels it renders Ancient Greek ἔρημος (érēmos), the desert of “the voice crying in the wilderness”.^[7]

Ciorănescu gives Megleno-Romanian pust as the form south of the Danube.^[5] The feminine noun pustie “desert” took the place of the older pustinie, taken directly from the Slavonic noun.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, of the early 16th century, as the noun “wilderness”: „Adecă mă delungaiu, fugiiu și sălășluiiu în pustie” “Lo, I went far off, I fled and dwelt in the wilderness” (Psalm 54:7).^[2][8][3] Tiktin's first record of the adjective is in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word was first a noun of the Bible, the desert or wilderness, and it is the noun that the 16th-century psalters use again and again.^[2][8] As an adjective it described a land without people or crops, then a deserted street, a ruined house, an empty vessel, and by extension a person left alone.^[4][3] Old texts still use it of people: „Am rămas pustiiu și gol de dragostea ta” “I have been left desolate and bare of your love”.^[4]

In popular speech it became a curse word, “cursed, wretched”, said of things that cause trouble, and the feminine noun pustia a name for the Devil.^[4][3][5] Ciorănescu, after Graur, compares the same use of Modern Greek έρημο (érimo).^[5] Adverbial phrases grew out of the noun: în pustiu “in vain” and a pustiu “ominously, foretelling death”, as of a dog that howls.^[9][10] Writers also use it for a feeling of oppressive loneliness.^[9][3] Hungarian borrowed the word as Hungarian posztia.^[5]

Timeline

• early 16th century – pustie “wilderness” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 54:7), the first record.^[8][3]
• c. 1551–1558 – pustie in the Voroneț Psalter.^[11]
• 1570 – pustii and pustiile in Coresi's Psalter.^[12][13]
• 1649 – pustie glossing Slavonic пуста in Mardarie's lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – pustie about a hundred times in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wilderness without vegetation or people; especially a vast sandy plain, a desert.^[9][3]
2. (figurative) An oppressive feeling of loneliness; boredom, sorrow.^[9]
3. în pustiu: in vain;^[9][3] a pustiu: ominously, foretelling death.^[9][3]

Adjective

1. Of a place: wild, without vegetation or inhabitants; desolate.^[9][3][1]
2. deserted, empty of people: un sat pustiu; left in ruin or neglect.^[9][4]
3. Of a person: alone, forsaken.^[4][3]
4. (popular, in curses) cursed, wretched; as a noun, pustia, the Devil.^[9][3]

Word family

• pustie
• pustietate
• pustii
• pustiitor
• pustiiciune

Related words

• pustă
• Hungarian puszta

Usage notes

The noun has two plurals: pustiuri for the noun “wilderness” and pustii for the adjective.^[9][3] The curse ducă-se pe pustii means “let him go to the Devil”.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pustiu
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 606
4. ^ 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. pustíu
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. pustiu
6. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
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 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 54:7
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 901
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 637
11. ^ 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 77:45
12. ^ 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 74:6
13. ^ 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 28:7
14. ^ 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. pustie
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 13:1