scrisoare

Forms

scrisoare f (plural scrisori)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian scris + -oare, from the participle and noun scris “written; writing” of scrie “to write”.^[2][3][4][1] DER lists it among the derivatives of the verb.^[5] The verb is inherited from Latin scrībō (“to write”) and survives south of the Danube as Aromanian scriu.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to a document of 1576, with the old sense “writing, the art of writing”.^[7] MDA2 has it before 1591, in a text printed in Gaster's chrestomathy.^[2] The sense “letter” is in a letter of 1616–1631, which thanks the addressee „de scrisoare și de cuvinte bune și frumoase” “for the letter and for the good and fine words”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the word meant the act of writing and its result: cu scrisoare was “in writing”, and Miron Costin and Cantemir used it for a script or the art of writing, as when a man learnt „limba și scrisoarea italienească” “the Italian language and script”.^[4][7] It also meant an inscription, a census, a written account or description, and a written document.^[4][2] Tiktin notes that old and popular texts usually called a letter carte, so the sense “letter, epistle” grew slowly beside it.^[7]

The Bucharest Bible of 1688 uses the word often, for the tablets of the Law as well as for letters.^[8] In the plural it came to mean a collection of correspondence and a literary genre written as letters.^[3] Regionally it still means handwriting and schooling, “book learning”.^[2][3] Banking and transport gave the phrases scrisoare de credit “letter of credit” and scrisoare de trăsură “consignment note”.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1576 – first record, in a document.^[7]
• before 1591 – in a text of Gaster's chrestomathy.^[2]
• 1616–1631 – “letter” in a private letter.^[4]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1688 – frequent in the Bucharest Bible.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A letter, a written message sent to someone by post or through another person; an epistle.^[3][2]
2. (in the plural) A collection of correspondence of literary or historical value; a literary work written in the form of letters.^[3]
3. (dated) The act of writing; something written.^[3][4]
4. (popular) handwriting.^[3]
5. (dated) A written paper, a document: scrisoare de acreditare “letter of credence”, scrisoare de trăsură “consignment note”.^[3]
6. (dated) A written work.^[3]

Related words

• scrie
• scris
• scriere

Usage notes

Scrisoare de credit is a document by which a bank asks another bank to pay its bearer a sum of money.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c 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, 826
3. ^ 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. 994
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. scrisoare
5. ^ a b 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
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 933
7. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. scrisoare
8. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ex 32:16
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. scrisoare