trei

Forms

trei^[1] Variants are tri and trii (old and regional), old tre and regional trâi.^[2] Neculce writes trii: „pănă nu s-au plini trii ani” “until three years had passed”.^[3] As a noun it has the plural treiuri, and popular speech has a feminine trele after toate or câte: toate trele “all three”.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin trēs (“three”).^{[5][2][3][6][7][1]} The Latin numeral goes back to Proto-Indo-European *tréyes.^[1][8]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian trei, Megleno-Romanian trei and Istro-Romanian trei.^[5][9][10] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian tra, Italian tre, French trois and Spanish tres.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's and Tiktin's first record is the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583).^[2][11] There it has its plain sense, as in în trei dzile “in three days”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

As a noun trei names the figure 3 and a school mark of three;^[12] Scriban and Tiktin record the plural treiuri for such marks.^[12][11][4] It enters plant names such as trei-frați-pătați “wild pansy” and many phrases: de trei parale “worthless”, a fi cu trei roate la car “to have a screw loose”.^[4][2] Tiktin quotes the saying unde sunt doi, cu el trei “wherever two are, he makes the third”, said of someone who is everywhere.^[11] Romanian formed treilea “third”, treime “third part; the Trinity” and treizeci “thirty” from it.^[5]

Timeline

• 1563–1583 – trei in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[2][11]
• 1688 – în trei chipuri “in three ways” in the preface of the Bucharest Bible.^[3]

Meanings

Numeral

1. three: the number between two and four, written 3 or III: Am trei frați și două surori.^[4][2][1]
2. (as a noun) the figure 3; a school mark of three.^[4][12]
3. (with ordinal value) the third: etajul trei “the third floor”.^[4]

Word family

• treizeci
• treilea
• treime
• treisprezece

Related words

• doi
• Aromanian trei
• Latin trēs

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1271
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. trei
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1143
5. ^ a b c d 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. trei
6. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 164
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8883
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 1027
10. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
11. ^ 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. trei
12. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1343