trai

Forms

trai n (uncountable)^[1]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Romanian trăi (“to live”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The verb is from Old Church Slavonic траꙗти (trajati, “to last”), from Proto-Slavic *trajati; it took the place of the inherited via “to live”, and Megleno-Romanian trăies is related.^[6][1] Ciorănescu does not think a derivation from Latin trahō (“to drag, draw”) likely.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the noun to 1642, in a church book printed at Govora.^[5] Tiktin also quotes it from the Romanian translation of the Teachings of Neagoe Basarab, in the sense “life, way of living”.^[5] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of about 1660 gloss it with Old Church Slavonic житиє (žitije) “life”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The oldest sense, “being alive”, is now obsolete; it survives in the old phrase a nu mai fi de trai “to be very old and ill, near death”, quoted from a document of 1780.^[3][4] The main sense became “the life one leads, way of life”, as in Nicolae Costin's loc de trai “a place to live” and Cantemir's strâmt traiu “a narrow living”.^[3] Mod de trai “way of life” and nivel de trai “standard of living” are set phrases.^[2][8]

A narrower sense is “a good, carefree life, merrymaking”, as in a se pune pe trai “to start living it up”; another is “living together”, as in trai bun în casă “domestic peace”.^[2][8][9] The rhyming phrase trai cu vătrai (literally “life with a poker”) means constant quarrelling.^[5] MDA2 has a duce trai pe vătrai “to live in want”.^[4] Romani borrowed the word as Romani tràjo.^[1]

Timeline

• 1642 – in a Govora church book, the first record.^[5]
• c. 1660 – in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, glossing “life”.^[7]
• 1682–1686 – in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.^[4][3]
• 1688 – traiul in the Bucharest Bible.^[10]
• 1780 – a nu mai fi de trai “to be near death” in a document.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. life, existence; the way one lives: mod de trai “way of life”.^[2][4][1]
2. A good, comfortable life; merrymaking.^[2][8]
3. Living together, cohabitation.^[2][8]

Related words

• trăi
• trainic
• netrai

Usage notes

A nu mai fi de trai and a nu mai avea trai mean “to be unable to stand it any longer”.^[2] The plural traiuri is rare.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 1136
3. ^ 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. trai
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1251
5. ^ 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. trai
6. ^ a b 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. trăi
7. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro
8. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. trai
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1336
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Paremiile lui Solomon 5:9