tot

Forms

tot^[1] The adjective and pronoun inflect as tot, toată, toți, toate, with the genitive-dative plural tuturor;^[2][3] MDA2 also records an obsolete feminine plural tute and a regional tutulor.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tōtus (“whole, all”).^[4][2][1] Pușcariu mentions the alternative Latin form tottus, which some Romance languages continue.^[5] Because the Latin word took over the plural sense “all” from omnis, the latter was lost, and the Romanian word does its work.^[5]

It survives in the other branches: Aromanian tut, Megleno-Romanian tot and Istro-Romanian tot.^[4][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian tutto, French tout, Catalan tot, Spanish todo and Portuguese todo.^[4][1] Pușcariu compares the sense “each” with Albanian gjithë.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is in the Hurmuzaki Psalter of the early 16th century, MDA2's first record.^[2][8] Tiktin's first date is Neacșu's letter of 1521.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Ciorănescu groups the senses of the adjective as “complete in number”, “whole”, “each, every” and “sound, whole”, and those of the adverb as “only”, “still, continuously”, “all the same” and “at last”.^[4] The old genitive was formed with a (a tot, a toate); modern Romanian uses the plural tuturor.^[4] Before numerals the word shortens to tus-, as in tustrei “all three”.^[4]

Its derivatives include totdeauna “always”, totodată “at the same time”, totuși “yet” and netot “simpleton”, the negative of tot in the sense “sound in mind”.^[4] The neologisms total and totalitate came later from French.^[4]

Timeline

• early 16th century – in the Hurmuzaki Psalter.^[2][8]
• 1521 – in Neacșu's letter.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (singular) whole, entire, complete: tot orașul “the whole town”.^[3][1]
2. (singular) Perfect, utter; with de, as great as can be.^[3]
3. (singular) every, each: de toate zilele “everyday”;^[3] peste tot “everywhere”.^[3]
4. (plural) all, with none missing: toți copiii; with a numeral, toți trei.^[3][1]

Pronoun

1. (plural) All of them, everyone: Au venit toți.^[3]
2. everything: Asta-i tot. “That's all.”;^[3][1] de tot “completely, for good”.^[3][1]

Adverb

1. still, as before: Plouă tot.^[3][1]
2. Continually, again and again: tot întreabă.^[3]

Word family

• totdeauna
• totuși
• netot
• netoată
• netoție
• totodată

Related words

• Aromanian tut
• Latin tōtus

Usage notes

A rare noun tot “Slovak” is a variant of tăut, from Hungarian tót.^[4][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1245
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1133
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. tot
5. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 162
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1059
7. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula, p. s.v. tot
8. ^ 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 8:9
9. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. tot