tinerețe

Forms

tinerețe f (plural tinereți)^[1] Old texts often have tinereață: the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has „Păcatele tinereațelor meale ... să nu-ți aduci aminte” “remember not the sins of my youth” (Psalm 24:7).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian tânăr + -ețe, like bătrânețe.^[4][5][3][1] The REW instead makes it inherited from Vulgar Latin *teneritia (“tenderness”), on tener (“soft, tender”), the source of Italian tenerezza, French tendresse, Catalan tendresa, Spanish terneza and Portuguese terneza.^[6][1] Ciorănescu reports this view.^[6][4][1] tânăr itself continues the same Latin adjective through a popular *tenerus.^[4]

It has a cognate south of the Danube: Aromanian tinireatsã.^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates its first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[3] Tiktin's first record is the Codicele Voronețean, at Acts 26:4.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has meant “youth, the time of being young” from the first texts, often in the plural with a singular sense: Dosoftei's verse psalter asks God to forget „Greșala mea cea de tinereațe” “the sin of my youth”.^[2][8] It is the opposite of bătrânețe, as in the saying Strânge la tinerețe ca să ai la bătrânețe “save in youth to have in old age”.^[2]

From the period of life it came to mean the state of being young, with its vigour and freshness, and the beginning of the life of an animal or a tree.^[5][3] An old and popular sense, chiefly in the plural, is “young people”, now tineret.^[5][3] Ciorănescu notes that Negruzzi's use of it for “tenderness” is an improper borrowing of the French sense.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[3]
• c. 1563–1583 – the Codicele Voronețean, Acts 26:4.^[2]
• c. 1573–1578 – tinerețile in the Psaltirea Scheiană, Psalm 87:16.^[9]
• 1688 – tinereațelor in the Bucharest Bible, Psalm 24:7.^[2]
• 1825 – Tėneréţe in the Lexicon de la Buda, glossed with Latin juventus and also “young people”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. youth: the period of life between childhood and maturity: În tinerețe a călătorit mult.^[5][1]
2. The early period in the life of an animal or a tree.^[5]
3. The state of being young, with its vigour and freshness.^[5][3]
4. Young people collectively.^[5]

Related words

• tânăr
• tineret
• tinerime
• bătrânețe
• Aromanian tinireatsã
• Latin tener

Usage notes

Prima tinerețe or tinerețea dintâi is the first part of youth, right after childhood, and a fi în floarea tinereții is “to be in the bloom of youth”.^[3] The plural tinereți also has the popular form tinerețe.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. tinerețe
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1221
4. ^ a b c d e 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. tânăr
5. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1126
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8647
7. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 428
9. ^ 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 87:16
10. ^ 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. 702