trece

Forms

Present trec, third person trece; past participle trecut; third conjugation.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin trāiciō (“to throw across, carry over”).^[2][3][1][4] Elsewhere in Romance it survives in Portuguese tragir and Old Occitan tragir.^[2][4]

The word survives in all four branches of Romanian: Aromanian trec, Megleno-Romanian trec and Istro-Romanian trec.^[2][5][6][7] The REW derives treaptă “step” from the same Latin verb and names petrece “to spend (time); to see off” as a compound of it.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and MDA2 date the first record to 1521, Neacșu's letter.^[8][3] The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century has the past tense trecu and trecură “they passed” in several psalms.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is “to go across” a river, a bridge, a mountain or a boundary, and “to go past” a place.^[3][8] From it come “to take someone across”, “to pass” of time (a trecut anul “the year has gone by”), “to be over” of a pain or feeling, and “to call on” someone.^[11][1] Further senses are “to move on to” another subject, “to turn into”, “to enter in a register”, “to pass” an examination and “to pass for” (drept).^[1] Tiktin cites Bogdan's „filele-ncepe-a trece” for leafing through a book.^[8]

The participle trecut also means “sifted” and, of fruit, “overripe”, and the reflexive verb is used of fruit going past its season.^[2][1] Ciorănescu lists trecere “passage; success, influence”, trecător “passer-by; transient”, trecătoare “pass, defile” and întrece “to surpass”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1521 – the first record, in Neacșu's letter.^[8][3]
• 16th century – trecu and trecură in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[9][10]
• c. 1551–1558 – trecea in the Voroneț psalter.^[12]
• 1570 – treceai and trecuși in Coresi's psalter.^[13][14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pass through or by a place without stopping; of rivers and roads, to run through.^[11][1]
2. To cross a road, a river, a border or an obstacle; to take someone across.^[3][1]
3. To drop in on someone, to pay a short visit (with la).^[11][1]
4. (of time) To go by;^[11][1] (of a pain, a feeling) to be over, cease.^[11][1]
5. To move on to another activity or subject (with la); to change into a state (with în).^[1]
6. To enter, record in writing (with în).^[1]
7. To pass an examination;^[1] (informal) to pass a student.^[1]
8. To pass for (with drept).^[1]
9. (reflexive, of fruit) To become overripe, go out of season.^[1][2]

Word family

• treacăt
• trecător
• trecătoare
• trecere
• trecut
• întrece

Related words

• treaptă
• petrece

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. trece
3. ^ 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, 1269
4. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8842
5. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
6. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română
7. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366
8. ^ 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. trece
9. ^ 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 8:8
10. ^ 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 41:10
11. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1143
12. ^ 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 100:3
13. ^ 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 67:8
14. ^ 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 9:22