spera

Forms

spera (third-person singular present speră, past participle sperat, third-person subjunctive spere) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin spērō (“to hope”), with Italian sperare as a second model, a neologism of the late 18th and 19th centuries.^[2][3][4][1] Romanian dictionaries name both sources: DEX, MDA2, the DLR and Wiktionary give Latin and Italian, Marcu and Maneca Latin compared with Italian, and Tiktin Italian alone.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][1]} Ciorănescu derives it from Latin and dates it to the 19th century.^[2] The Italian verb is itself inherited from the Latin one.^[1]

The Latin verb lives on in most Romance languages, besides Italian: Old French esperer (whose old first person espoir meant “perhaps”), Spanish esperar and Portuguese esperar.^[9] The noun speranță, from speranza, and the verb dispera, from disperare, came in by the same route.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from Samuil Micu in 1781, with the sense “to hope”.^[8] In 1843 a newspaper still glossed it with the native verb: „Sperez (nădejduiesc)” “I hope (I trust)”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The verb entered the written language as a learned synonym of the older native nădăjdui and of the obsolete upovăi, which MDA2 lists beside it.^[4] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms (1848) still explained it by nădăjdui and gave two present forms, sper and sperez.^[10] The second form appears in 19th-century quotations and is now regional or dated.^[5][4] By extension the verb also means “to believe, to think likely”, and with în “to place one's hope in someone”.^[4][11] Eminescu's line „Nu spera și nu ai teamă” “do not hope and do not fear” shows it used without an object.^[8][12]

Timeline

• 1781 – first record, in Samuil Micu.^[8]
• 1843 – sperez, glossed by nădejduiesc, in a newspaper.^[5]
• 1848 – listed by Negulici among the neologisms, with the present forms sper and sperez.^[10]
• 1857 – „Sperăm că vom putea saluta... unirea” “we hope to be able to greet the union”.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hope: to expect that something wished for will come true: Sper să ne vedem curând.^[3][4][1]
2. By extension, to believe, to think something likely.^[4]
3. (With în) to put one's hope or trust in someone or something.^[4][11]

Related words

• speranță
• dispera
• nădăjdui
• Latin spērō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. spera
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1039
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, 950
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. speră
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. spera
7. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. spera
8. ^ 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. sperá
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ 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. sperare
11. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 608
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 190