trist

Forms

trist m or n (feminine singular tristă, masculine plural triști, feminine/neuter plural triste)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin trīstus, the popular form of Latin trīstis (“sad, gloomy”).^[2][3][4][1] DEX, MDA2 and the DLR derive it directly from the classical form.^[5][6][7] Nocentini explains the Vulgar Latin form as made on the model of maestus (“sad”) and laetus (“glad”), and notes that the Appendix Probi condemned it in the 5th century.^[8]

Its Romance cognates include Italian tristo, Occitan trist, Catalan trist and Portuguese triste.^[3][9][8] Nocentini considers French triste a learned transmission.^[8] Ciorănescu notes that the word is missing from the dialects south of the Danube and that its popular use seems limited in Romanian too.^[3]

The origin of the Latin word is unknown.^[10][1] De Vaan rejects a comparison with Old English þrīste (“audacious”) on phonological grounds.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Coresi's Psalter of 1570 (Psalm 37:6), and the word is used in the other 16th-century psalters.^[11][2] The Psaltirea Scheiană has „tristu îmblaiu” “I went about sad”.^[6][7] A 16th-century fragment already uses it as a noun: the Holy Spirit is „triștilor veselitor” “the gladdener of the sad”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first described a sad or downcast person, and then passed to looks, voices and songs that express sadness.^[6][7] Dosoftei asks a guest at a wedding „ce ședzi trist, a ce nu te veselești?” “why do you sit sad, why don't you rejoice?”.^[2] Later it came to mean what causes or suggests sadness: news, a life, a scene.^[6][5] Șăineanu gave the sense “dark and rainy” of the weather as the French one.^[12]

Ciorănescu derives tristețe “sadness” on the model of Italian tristezza and French tristesse, and întrista “to sadden” on the model of French attrister.^[3] The dialect of the Transylvanian Saxons borrowed the adjective from Romanian.^[3]

Timeline

• 1570 – trist in Coresi's Psalter, the first record.^[11]
• c. 1573–1578 – „tristu îmblaiu” “I went about sad” in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[6][7]
• 1648 – triști of the gloomy-faced hypocrites in the New Testament of 1648.^[7]
• 1649 – glosses a Slavonic word for “sad” in Mardarie's lexicon.^[13]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible (Matthew 26:38).^[14]
• 1825 – tristu in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of people: sad, upset, downcast; melancholy: Era trist că pleacă. “He was sad to leave.”^[5][6][1]
2. Of eyes, looks or sounds: expressing sadness; plaintive.^[5][6]
3. Of states, events or moments of life: full of sadness.^[5][6]
4. Causing sadness; painful.^[5][6]
5. Suggesting or evoking sadness; dreary, depressing.^[5][6]

Word family

• tristețe
• întristător
• întrista

Related words

• Latin trīstis

Usage notes

Tiktin records the form strist in Cantemir's Divanul.^[2] MDA2 gives the regional synonym tristuit.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. trist
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. trist
4. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1348
5. ^ 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. 1148
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1283
7. ^ 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. trist
8. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 164
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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 37:6
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 667
13. ^ 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. trist
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mt 26:38
15. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 724