strămoș

Forms

strămoș m (plural strămoși)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian stră- + moș.^[2][3][4][1] Scriban gives the same analysis.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Apostol (Praxiu) of 1563.^[6] MDA2 dates it to Coresi's book of homilies of 1581, where it is said of someone who had not seen Moses but had heard of him from his forebears: „Pre Moisi amu nu văzuse, ce den strămoș auzise”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Tiktin gives “great-grandfather” as the first sense and “forefather, ancestor” as the wider one, with a feminine strămoașă “great-grandmother”.^[6] Costinescu still defined it in 1870 as the father of one's grandfather, mostly used in the plural for the people a family or nation descends from.^[7] The plural for the earlier generations of a people is the usual modern use, and DEX keeps “great-grandfather” as a second sense.^[2][8]

The adjective strămoșesc “ancestral” is recorded in Neculce's chronicle (c. 1743).^[3] MDA2 also lists a rare variant stremoș, which Gaster's glossary of the old texts records as well.^[3][9]

Timeline

• 1563 – the first record, in Coresi's Apostol.^[6]
• 1581 – den strămoș “from the forefathers” in Coresi's book of homilies.^[3][4]
• 1648 – a strămoșului său “of his forefather” in the New Testament of Bălgrad.^[4]
• 1688 – strămoși and strămoșilor in the Bucharest Bible.^[10]
• c. 1743 – the derivative strămoșesc “ancestral” in Neculce.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ancestor: a person of the same family line who lived several generations earlier; in the masculine plural, the earlier generations of a people, the forefathers.^[2][3][1]
2. A great-grandfather; in this sense also străbunic.^[2][6]

Word family

• strămoșesc

Related words

• moș
• străbun
• străbunic

Usage notes

The feminine is strămoașă, plural strămoașe.^[2] The phrase din moși-strămoși means “from time immemorial”, of a custom or a people's presence in a land.^[5][11]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1057
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, 1003
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. strămoș
5. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1250
6. ^ 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. strămoș
7. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 563
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 254
9. ^ Gaster, M. (1891), Chrestomatie română: texte tipărite și manuscrise (sec. XVI–XIX), dialectale și populare, cu o introducere, gramatică și un glosar româno-francez, vol. II, Leipzig: Brockhaus / București: Socec
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 2 Timothy 1:3
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. strămoș