stare

Forms

stare f (plural stări)^[1]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of sta (“to stand, stay”), used as a noun: formed from Romanian sta + -re.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The verb is from Latin stō (“to stand”).^[2][6] stat is a doublet from the participle status.^[2] Aromanian also has the noun Aromanian stari, which Wiktionary derives from the verb or from Latin.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The roPsalt index lists stare in the Psaltirea Voronețeană (c. 1551–1558), at Psalm 107:11.^[7] The same psalm and Psalm 59:11 in the other 16th-century psalters have cetate de stare, a strong, fortified city.^[8][9] In the Psaltirea Scheiană the psalmist sinks in deep mud „și nu e stare” “and there is no standing” (Psalm 68:3).^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the act of standing still, a halt; in Orthodox practice the word also named the halts of a funeral procession, where a Gospel is read.^[5][3][9] From standing came position and posture, and then the way a person or thing is, its condition: starea sănătății “the state of health”, stare de asediu “state of siege”.^[9][4] A stare bună was well-being, and stare alone came to mean wealth: om cu stare “a well-off man”.^[10][4] In the old language it also meant a social class or rank.^[4] The phrase a fi în stare (să) “to be able to” is recorded by Tiktin and by 19th-century dictionaries.^[9][11]

Timeline

• c. 1551–1558 – stare in the Psaltirea Voronețeană, the first record.^[7]
• c. 1573–1578 – nu e stare “there is no standing” in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3][5]
• 1649 – it glosses Slavonic words for state and standing in Mardarie's lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – frequent in the Bucharest Bible, for example stare in Deuteronomy 28:65.^[13]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda gives “standing”, “rest”, “stanza” and “condition”.^[14]
• 1862 – a fi în stare de “to be able to” in Pontbriant.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A state, condition: the situation of someone or something at a given moment;^[4][3][1] a fi în stare (să) to be able to, capable of.^[4][3][1]
2. (rare) Posture, position of the body;^[4] a nu avea stare to be restless.^[4]
3. (physics) The state of a body or system, defined by certain parameters: stare solidă, stare lichidă.^[4][15]
4. How someone feels physically or in mind; mood.^[4]
5. wealth, a good material situation;^[4][15] cu stare well-off.^[4][15]
6. (dated) A social class or rank.^[4][15]
7. (regional, Orthodox) A halt of a funeral procession, where a Gospel is read.^[5][3]

Related words

• stat
• înstărit
• Aromanian stari

Usage notes

Stare civilă is civil status, and ofițerul stării civile the registrar.^[9][15] Stare de fapt is the actual state of affairs.^[15]

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. sta
3. ^ 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, 972
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1046
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. stare
6. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 150
7. ^ 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 107:11
8. ^ 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 59:10
9. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. stáre
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 613
11. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 698
12. ^ 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. stare
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Deut 28:65
14. ^ 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. 666
15. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. stare