scrie

Forms

scrie (present scriu, third-person singular scrie, past participle scris), third conjugation.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin scrībō (“to write”), a verb that survives across the Romance languages.^[3][4][5][1] The Latin verb first meant “to scratch, carve”, and comes from Proto-Indo-European *skreybʰ- (“to scratch, carve”).^[6][1]

Its Aromanian counterpart is scriu.^[3][7] The Romance cognates include Italian scrivere, Occitan escriure, Catalan escriure, French écrire, Spanish escribir and Portuguese escrever.^[3][5]

Several of its relatives came later as learned loans: script from Latin scrīptum in the 19th century, scrib from French scribe, and circumscrie, descrie, înscrie, prescrie and subscrie, Latin compounds fitted to the conjugation of the inherited verb.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, of the early 16th century (Psalm 68).^[8] Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană, and MDA2's the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563).^[9][4] The sense was “to write”, as in Latin.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From “to write” the verb came to mean to compose a work, to write letters, and to record or enrol a name.^[3][2] The old language also used it for “to describe” and “to ascribe”: Miron Costin writes that Homer „au scris … războaiele ce au fost” “described the wars that had been”.^[9] In old texts it could also mean “to print”.^[4][10] Folk speech kept the older sense “to draw, paint”, and uses it for decorating Easter eggs.^[2][4]

A thing “written” for someone is his fate: așa i-a fost scris “so it was fated for him”.^[9][11] Șăineanu compares this sense with ursită “fate”.^[12] The Aromanian verb has the same use, “to foretell, predestine”.^[7] Writing on water is a figure for what will soon be forgotten: the Îndreptarea legii advises that the oath of wicked men „pre apă să-l scrii” “you should write on water”.^[9][4]

Its main derivatives are scriere “writing”, scriitor “writer”, scris “handwriting, the written word” and scrisoare “letter”.^[3]

Timeline

• early 16th century – in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[8]
• c. 1563 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4]
• 1570 – in Coresi's Psalter.^[13]
• 1649 – scriu in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – scrie in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To write: to put sounds and words down in conventional signs.^[2][1]
2. (impersonal) To be written, to say: Ce scrie pe bilet? “What does the ticket say?”^[2][1]
3. To compose a literary or scholarly work; to be a writer; to relate something in writing.^[2][11]
4. To write to someone; to correspond by letter.^[2][3]
5. To record, enter in a list; to enrol.^[11][3]
6. (dated and popular) To draw, paint, outline; to decorate Easter eggs.^[2][4]
7. a-i fi scris (cuiva): to be someone's fate.^[11][9]

Word family

• scriere
• scriitor
• scriitoraș
• scriitură
• scris
• scrisoare

Related words

• scriptură
• scrib
• script
• descrie
• înscrie
• prescrie
• Aromanian scriu
• Latin scrībō

Usage notes

Fairy tales open with the formula de când scria musca pe perete “since the time when the fly wrote on the wall”, that is, very long ago.^[2] A scrie pe apă “to write on water” means to forget easily, or not to take something seriously.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 993
3. ^ 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. scrie
4. ^ 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, 824
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7745
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
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 68:33
9. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. scrie
10. ^ Chițimia, I. C.; Toma, Stela (eds.) (1984–1989), Crestomație de literatură română veche, 2 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Dacia, p. 124
11. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. scrie
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 576
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 39:11
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. scriu
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ieșirea 17:14