uita

Forms

uita (present uit, third-person singular uită, past participle uitat), first conjugation.^[1][2] The 16th-century texts often have ulta: Coresi's Psalter has „Şi ultară bine fapta lui” “and they quite forgot his deed”.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *oblītāre (“to forget”), formed on Latin oblītus (“forgotten”), the past participle of oblīvīscor (“to forget”).^{[1][2][4][3][5]} Ciorănescu gives the same source, after Cipariu, Schuchardt, Pușcariu and Skok.^[6]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian ultu, Megleno-Romanian ul't and Istro-Romanian utu.^[6][7][8] Its Romance cognates are Occitan oblidar, Catalan oblidar, French oublier, Spanish olvidar and Portuguese olvidar.^[6][5] The Banat and Maramureș variant zăuita adds the Slavic prefix за- (za-).^[6]

The reflexive sense “to look” comes from the same verb, according to Ciorănescu and Wiktionary: “to forget oneself” led to “to stand still”, and then to “to gaze”, a development like that of Spanish fijarse.^[6][1] Many authors have treated this sense as having a separate source.^[6] Crețu derived it from Latin tuitō (“to watch over”), and Meyer-Lübke from Vulgar Latin *obitō, based on the phrase obīre oculīs (“to go over with the eyes”);^[6][1] Ciorănescu finds both uncertain.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500–1520).^[4] The psalter uses it several times, for example in Psalm 9.^[9] The sense is “to forget”, as in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563): „Se duce şi … ultă cum era” “he goes away and forgets what he was like”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From “to forget” the verb developed the senses “to stop caring about someone”, “to overlook, omit” and “to leave something behind by mistake”.^[2] Phrases about death show how far forgetting can go: someone whom death or God has forgotten is very old.^[4][10]

The reflexive a se uita “to look” is now one of the commonest senses.^[2] Its imperative uite, from uită-te “look!”, became an interjection, “look, here is”.^[6][2] Ciorănescu notes that s-a uitat pe el, said of a child who has wet himself, still keeps the sense “to forget oneself”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – uita in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[4][9]
• c. 1563 – ultă in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]
• 1570 – ulta in Coresi's Psalter.^[11]
• 1649 – uitat in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – uita in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To forget: to lose from memory, for a moment or for good.^[2][1]
2. To stop thinking about or caring for someone or something; to neglect; to overlook, omit.^[2][14]
3. To pass over in silence, to let a matter drop.^[2]
4. To leave something or someone behind by mistake: Mi-am uitat cheile acasă.^[2][14]
5. (reflexive, with la) To look at, watch, examine.^[2][1]
6. (reflexive) To pay attention to, take into account.^[2]

Word family

• uitare
• uitat
• neuitat
• uituc
• uităcios
• uitător
• uitătură
• uite

Related words

• Aromanian ultu
• Latin oblīvīscor

Usage notes

The imperative uite is used as an interjection, “look!, there!”.^[2] A ști cât au uitat alții “to know as much as others have forgotten” means to know next to nothing.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1167
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. uita
4. ^ 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, 1359
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6015
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. uita
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 314
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 9:18
10. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. uita
11. ^ 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 73:20
12. ^ 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. uitat
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 27:45
14. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. uita