spre

Forms

spre (+accusative)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin super (“over, above, on”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} Pușcariu lists it as no. 1626 of the Latin element.^[7] The Latin preposition goes back to Proto-Indo-European *upér (“over, above”), the source also of Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér).^[1][8]

Its Romance cognates are Italian sopra, Occitan sobre, Catalan sobre, Spanish sobre, Portuguese sobre and French sur.^[2] Some of them continue the related suprā (“above”), which merged with it in Romance.^[9][6] Pușcariu notes that in Aromanian other prepositions replaced it, except in the numerals from 11 to 19.^[7]

despre “about” is a compound with de, which Pușcariu traces to Latin dēsuper (“from above”).^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1519, in a Slavo-Romanian document.^[10] It is frequent in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[11] MDA2's first record is Coresi's Gospel with commentary of 1581.^[4] In the 16th and 17th centuries it meant “on, upon”: Coresi has „zise gloatelor să șază spre iarbă” “he told the crowds to sit on the grass”, and in Matthew 24:2 „N-ară sta acicea piatră spre piatră” “there shall not be left here one stone upon another”.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “on, over” was later taken over by pe and peste.^[7][10] From “upon” the word moved to direction, “towards”: a nădăjdui spre Dumnezeu “to hope in God”, and the modern venea spre mine “he was coming towards me”.^[10][12] It then came to mark time (“towards evening”), purpose (“for, in order to”) and result (“to his joy”).^[2][3] Old texts also used it for “against”: „mulți să scoală spre mine” “many rise up against me”, in Dosoftei.^[12]

The old sense “on” survives in the numerals from 11 to 19: unsprezece is “one on ten”, doisprezece “two on ten”.^[7][10] Pușcariu and Scriban hold that they follow a Slavonic pattern (dŭva na desęte “two on ten”).^[7][12] Ciorănescu doubts this until the question has been studied more closely.^[2]

Timeline

• 1519 – in a Slavo-Romanian document, the first record.^[10]
• early 16th century – frequent in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[11]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Gospel with commentary.^[4]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1688 – more than 1,700 times in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda glosses it with Latin ad, versus and super.^[15]

Meanings

Preposition

1. towards, in the direction of: Mergem spre gară.^[3][1]
2. In the numerals 11 to 19: added to, on: unsprezece “eleven”.^[3][1]
3. (of time) Towards, around: spre dimineață “towards morning”; between one day and the next: luni spre marți “on Monday night”.^[3][1]
4. (of purpose) In order to, for: spre a afla adevărul;^[3][1] spre pildă “for example”.^[3][1]
5. (of result) To: spre bucuria tuturor “to everyone's joy”.^[3]
6. (dated and regional) As, by way of: spre răsplată “as a reward”.^[3]

Word family

• despre

Related words

• unsprezece
• peste
• Latin super

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. spre
3. ^ 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. 1043
4. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 962
5. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. spre
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8456
7. ^ a b c d e f Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 149
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ 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. spre
11. ^ 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 2:2
12. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1233
13. ^ 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. spre
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 1:14
15. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 663