rosti

Forms

rosti (third-person singular present rostește, past participle rostit), 4th conjugation^[1] Regional variants are rusti, răsti and rosta (present rost).^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian rost + -i; the noun once meant “mouth, speech” and also names the gap between the warp threads of a loom.^{[3][2][4][1][5]} The noun is from Latin rōstrum (“beak, snout”), with Aromanian rost south of the Danube and Romance cognates such as Catalan rosto, Spanish rostro and Portuguese rosto.^[5][6]

Ciorănescu lists the verb among the noun's derivatives, with the senses “to pronounce, say”, “to arrange, order”, “to change the heddles” and “to prepare”.^[5] The weaving verb rosta is a sister formation.^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The participle rostit appears in 1673 in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, glossing a Slavonic phrase about water that parted.^[7] Tiktin records an old intransitive sense “to separate”.^[4] The sense “to say aloud” is first found in Budai-Deleanu's Țiganiada (c. 1800–1812): „Rădicând glasul, așa rostește” “raising his voice, thus he speaks”.^[4][8]

Semantic evolution

The speech senses come from rost “mouth”: to utter, pronounce and say.^[5][3] From the 19th century the verb is used for formal speech: to deliver a speech, to pronounce a sentence or an order.^[4][3][2] Reflexive a se rosti “to speak one's mind, to declare oneself” is rare.^[3][4]

Other senses follow rost “order, arrangement”: to put in order, to see to something, to get a meal ready.^[4][5][3] In weaving, rosti (also rosta) means to wind the woven cloth onto the front beam and let out more warp so that the shed opens again.^[3][2] Regional uses include “to begin”, “to set the teeth of a saw” and “to cut shingles to one size”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1673 – the participle rostit in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[7]
• c. 1800–1812 – rostește “he speaks” in Budai-Deleanu's Țiganiada.^[4][8]
• 1862 – Pontbriant: “to speak, pronounce, say”.^[9]
• 1893–1895 – Damé gives “to order, arrange” beside “to pronounce”.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To articulate or pronounce sounds and words.^[3][11]
2. (transitive, often figurative) To say, speak or tell; to deliver a speech: a rosti un discurs.^[3][4]
3. (transitive) To announce an order, a decision or a sentence.^[3][2]
4. (reflexive, rare) To give one's considered opinion, to declare oneself.^[3][2]
5. (dated) To arrange, see to something, prepare.^[3][4]
6. (intransitive, weaving) To wind the woven cloth onto the front beam of the loom and let out more warp, so that the shed opens again.^[3][2]

Related words

• rost
• rostui
• răsti
• Latin rōstrum

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 725
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 962
4. ^ 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. rostí
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. rost
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7386
7. ^ 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. rostit
8. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. rosti
9. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 641
10. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. rosti
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 773