treaz

Forms

treaz m or n (feminine singular trează, masculine plural treji, feminine/neuter plural treze)^[1] The old form is treazv: Coresi's Gospel of 1561 has „Că duhulu e treazv e trupulu e slab” “for the spirit is awake but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic трѣзвъ (trězvŭ, “sober, temperate”), from Proto-Slavic *terzvъ (“sober”).^{[1][3][4][5][2]} The old form was ⟨treazv⟩.^[3][2] The Slavonic word renders Ancient Greek νήφων (nḗphōn, “sober”).^[6] Ciorănescu compares Slovene trezen.^[3]

The verb trezi “to wake” has a separate source, the Slavonic verb for “to be sober, to moderate oneself”; its old form was ⟨trezvi⟩.^[3] The origin of the Proto-Slavic adjective is unclear; one view takes it from Proto-Indo-European *ters- (“to dry”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to Coresi's Gospel of 1561, where treazv translates the Slavonic word for “watchful” in Matthew 26:41.^[2] MDA2's first record, with the sense “awake”, dates from before 1642.^[5] Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 gives treaz for Slavonic words for keeping watch.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Slavonic word meant “sober, temperate”; in Romanian the sense “awake, not asleep” came first, with “watchful, vigilant” as its figurative use, as in the old exhortation privegheați și fiți treji “watch and be awake”.^[6][2][5] The sense “not drunk” is old as well, in the proverb ce e în inima treazului, stă în gura beatului “what is in the sober man's heart is in the drunkard's mouth”.^[2] MDA2 adds the figurative “clear” (of the mind) and “level-headed, temperate” (of people), close to the Slavonic sense.^[5]

Timeline

• 1561 – treazv “awake” in Coresi's Gospel, the first record.^[2]
• before 1642 – treaz “awake”.^[5]
• 1649 – treaz in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[7]
• 1688 – treaz in the Bucharest Bible.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. awake: not asleep.^[4][1]
2. sober: not drunk.^[4][1]
3. (figurative) Watchful, vigilant.^[4][5]
4. (figurative) Clear-headed, level-headed.^[5]

Word family

• trezie

Related words

• trezi

Usage notes

The plural forms are treji (masculine) and treze (feminine).^[4][2] MDA2 lists the old and regional variant treazv.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. treaz
3. ^ 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. treaz
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1142
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1268
6. ^ a b Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
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, p. s.v. treaz
8. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 1 Timothy 3:2