rămășiță

Forms

rămășiță f (plural rămășițe)^[1] MDA2 lists the old variant remășiță and the old plurals rămășițuri and rămășiți.^[2] Tiktin cites rămășițuri from the 18th-century chronicles.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian rămas + -iță, from rămas, the participle of rămâne “to remain”.^{[2][4][3][5][6]} Pușcariu proposed instead Vulgar Latin *remansicia, from remaneō (“to remain”), and compared Italian rimasuglio and Old French remasille, and cited Aromanian arămăsătură beside it.^[7] Wiktionary calls the Latin origin less likely.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[2] In the Psaltirea Scheiană, Psalm 36, it means “descendants”: rămășițele necuraților, the offspring of the wicked, shall be destroyed.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The old language used it for “descendants” and, in Moldavia, for “inheritance, estate of a dead man”.^[6][3] These senses died out, and the word now means a remainder or leftover.^[3][4] Neculce used it for arrears of tax that were never paid in, a sense DEX keeps as “what remains unpaid of a debt or obligation”.^[3][4] Rămășițele pământești “earthly remains” is a dead body.^[4][5]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2]
• 1570 – rămășițe in Coresi's psalter, Psalm 36:39.^[8]
• 1649 – rămășițe in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1688 – rămășița norodului “the rest of the people” in the Bucharest Bible.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. What is left of a whole after most of it has gone or been used; a remnant, remainder;^[4][2][1] rămășițe pământești, a dead body, mortal remains.^[4][2][1]
2. What is left unpaid or undone of a debt or obligation; arrears.^[4]
3. What is still lacking up to a set quantity or limit.^[4]
4. (obsolete) A surplus; also the result of a subtraction.^[4]

Related words

• rămâne
• rămas
• rest

Usage notes

A separate regional rămășiță “bet” is formed on rămăși “to bet”; it is recorded near Caracal in the Romanian linguistic atlas.^[2][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 634
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. rămășiță
4. ^ 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. 916
5. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1093
6. ^ a b Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 247
7. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 127
8. ^ 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 36:39
9. ^ 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. rămășițe
10. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. rămășiță