undeva

Forms

undeva^[1] The first record has uneva: „Cela ce va vrea să fure şi de să va ascunde uneva, la vreun loc” “whoever means to steal and hides somewhere, in some place”.^[2][3] Regional variants are univa and uneva.^[3]

Etymology

It is a compound from Romanian unde + va, “where” and the indefinite element va.^{[4][3][5][2][6]} That element is the popular third person singular present of vrea “to want”, and it formed other indefinite words in the old language, such as cândva and cineva.^[7][8] The adverb of place is from Latin unde.^[6]

Aromanian made the same kind of compound, Aromanian iuva, from iu (“where”) and -va.^[9][1] The Istro-Romanian form is juvavå.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and DLR first record it in the Moldavian law code of 1646, in the form uneva and the sense “somewhere”.^[5][2][3] A text of 1654 in Gaster's chrestomathy says of the snake that when it sees a man it “flees to hide somewhere” (fuge să să ascunză undeva).^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides “somewhere”, the old language used it for “anywhere, wherever”, and with prepositions for “from somewhere, from someone” (de undeva) and “through some place” (pe undeva).^[2][3] An old strengthened form was undevași, found in Spătarul Milescu and in Cantacuzino, and regional speech has undevașilea.^[5][3] Klein's dictionary of 1801 refers it to oareunde, an older synonym.^[10][2]

Timeline

• 1646 – uneva in the Moldavian law code, the first record.^[5][2]
• 1654 – undeva in a text in Gaster's chrestomathy.^[2]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]
• 1801 – in Klein's dictionary.^[10]

Meanings

Adverb

1. somewhere: in some place or direction that is not specified, or with some person: Mi-am lăsat cheile undeva.^[4][3]
2. (with de) From somewhere, from someone: A aflat vestea de undeva.^[4][3]
3. (with pe) Through some place, somewhere about: Trebuie să fie pe undeva prin casă.^[4][3]

Related words

• unde
• cândva
• cineva
• oareunde
• Aromanian iuva

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. undeva
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1373
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1171
5. ^ 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. undeva
6. ^ a b 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. unde
7. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1180
8. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1404
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 567
10. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 464
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 3 Kings 10:12