uneori

Forms

uneori (adverb)^[2] Old texts have uniori: „Și uniori băte neamțul și uniori frânțozul” “and sometimes the German won, and sometimes the Frenchman” (Neculce).^[3] Other old and regional variants are uneora, unioarea and unoară.^[4][3] Folk poetry has auneori.^[5]

Etymology

It is a compound from Romanian une + ori (“times”).^[3][2][1] ⟨Une⟩ is the old feminine plural of the indefinite article un, now unele, and ⟨ori⟩ is the plural of oară (“time, occasion”).^[3][4][1][6] The noun is from Latin hōra (“hour”).^[7][8] It is thus literally “some times”, and the Wallachian version of a Pravila quoted by the DLR has ⟨unele ori⟩ in its place.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Varlaam's Cazania (1643): the Lord spoke with great wisdom, „uneori deșchis și la arătare, alteori acoperit și cu pildă” “sometimes openly, at other times veiled and in parables”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The adverb has kept its sense “sometimes, now and then” from the 17th century to the present, often paired with alteori “at other times”.^[3][5] Regionally it also means “then, at that time” (Moldavia) and, rarely, “probably” (Transylvania); the old form unoară meant “once”.^[4]

Timeline

• 1643 – the first record, in Varlaam's Cazania.^[4][3]
• c. 1743 – uniori in Neculce's chronicle.^[3]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses it with Latin interdum.^[9]

Meanings

Adverb

1. sometimes, occasionally, from time to time.^[2][4][1]
2. (Moldavia) then, at that time.^[4]
3. (rare, Transylvania) Probably.^[4]

Related words

• câteodată
• alteori
• oară

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1171
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. uneori
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1374
5. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 581
6. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 678
7. ^ 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. oară
8. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 727
9. ^ 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