putea

Forms

third-person singular present poate, past participle putut, third-person subjunctive poată; second conjugation^[1] The first person singular present had an old form poci, still in popular use, beside pot.^[2][3] MDA2 records a regional variant potea.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *potēre (“to be able”), the popular form that replaced classical posse by analogy.^[5][3][2][6] The verb survives in all four branches of Romanian: Aromanian pot, Megleno-Romanian pot and Istro-Romanian pot.^[5][6] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian potare, Italian potere, Occitan poder, Catalan poder, Spanish poder, Portuguese poder and Old French pooir, the source of French pouvoir.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century has putea, pot and the perfect putură.^[7][8] Tiktin quotes the Psaltirea Scheiană, and MDA2's first record is the Codicele Voronețean.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The verb means “to be able to” and “to be allowed to”; reflexive and impersonal, se poate means “it is possible”.^[2][3] The third person poate became an adverb, “perhaps”, from se poate “it may be”;^[5] Ciorănescu compares Calabrian pozza.^[5] With a negation the verb expresses being overwhelmed: nu mai pot de… “I can't stand any more of…”, and colloquially “not to care at all”.^[2][5] In Aromanian nu pot means “I am ill”, which Candrea and Densusianu compare with the same use in Modern Greek, Albanian and Bulgarian.^[6]

The noun putere “strength, power” is as old as the verb; it also meant “army” and “miracle” in the old language, and the centre or heart of something.^[5][9][6] Ciorănescu derives putință “possibility” with the suffix -ință, while Tiktin, Candrea and Scriban take it from Latin potentia.^[5]

Timeline

• early 16th century – putea, pot and putură in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[7][8]
• c. 1500–1520 – the noun putere “power”, in the same psalter.^[9]
• 16th century – putință and the verb in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[10][3]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4]
• 1570 – poate in Coresi's psalter.^[11]
• 1688 – putere in the sense “miracle” in the Bucharest Bible.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be able to, to be capable of: Nu pot ridica sacul. “I can't lift the sack.”;^[2][4] a nu mai putea de… to be overwhelmed by a feeling.^[2][4]
2. To have the means or the opportunity to do something.^[2]
3. To be possible: se poate “it is possible”; poate “perhaps”.^[2][3]
4. To be allowed: Se poate fuma aici? “Is smoking allowed here?”^[2][3]
5. To have reason, to be justified in doing or saying something.^[2]
6. To be fitting, to be advisable.^[2]

Word family

• poate
• putință
• putere
• putincios
• neputincios
• puternic
• atotputernic
• puternicie
• atotputernicie

Related words

• potent
• potență
• Aromanian pot

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ 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. putea
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 608
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. putea
6. ^ a b c d e f Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. putea
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 9:3
8. ^ 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 20:12
9. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. s.v. putere
10. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. putință
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 70:10