rest

Forms

rest n (plural resturi)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Rest, French reste and Modern Greek ρέστο (résto) according to MDA2 and the DLR, a loan with several models that the dictionaries rank differently: DEX gives Greek and French and compares Italian resto and German, and Tiktin names German and French.^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary has French only.^[1] Graur argued that the sense “change” cannot come from French, which uses another expression for it, and that it comes from Greek, as does Bulgarian ресто (resto).^[6]

The French noun is formed on the verb rester (“to remain”).^[1] The German noun is borrowed from the Italian one according to Pfeifer, from French according to Kluge, who traces it to Medieval Latin restum, a back-formation from Latin restō (“to remain, stay behind”).^[7][8] The Latin verb is a compound of re- and stō (“to stand”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1777.^[5] MDA2 and the DLR start with a commercial letter of before 1804, about goods not yet collected: „lipsa mea și restu care cu aducerea marfi[i] întâi nu s-au ridicat” “what I lack and the rest that was not taken up with the first delivery of goods”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is what remains of a whole after most of it has been taken.^[3][2] Negulici in 1848 glossed it with Latin reliquiae and the native rămășiță.^[9] The arithmetical sense, the difference left by a subtraction, is in Costinescu's dictionary of 1870.^[10] The plural resturi came to mean scraps or remains, as in resturi de mâncare “leftovers”.^[11][12]

The sense “change”, the money handed back to someone who pays with more than the price, is the one Graur traced to Greek; he noted the Greek plural τὰ ρέστα and that a Romanian buyer says how much change to give: dă-mi doi lei rest.^[6]

Timeline

• 1777 – first record.^[5]
• before 1804 – restu in a commercial letter.^[3][2]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary.^[9]
• 1870 – the arithmetical sense in Costinescu.^[10]
• 1963 – Graur argues for a Greek origin of the sense “change”.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The remainder of something after the greater part has been taken or used; in the plural, scraps, remains.^[4][2][1]
2. The part of a whole other than the one being discussed: în rest “otherwise, apart from that”.^[4][2]
3. change: the money handed back to someone who pays with more than the amount due: Păstrați restul!^[4][2][1]
4. (mathematics) The result of a subtraction, the difference; the part left over after a division.^[4][2]

Related words

• restanță
• rămășiță

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 696
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. rest
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 947
5. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. rest
6. ^ a b c Graur, Alexandru (1963), Etimologii romînești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. rest
7. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
8. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
9. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. rest
10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 437
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 732
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1121