unul

Forms

unul m or n (feminine singular una, masculine plural unii, feminine/neuter plural unele)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian unu (also un), the numeral and indefinite article, as its pronoun form, with the feminine una.^[2][1][3] The numeral is from Latin ūnus (“one”) and survives in all four branches: Aromanian un, Megleno-Romanian un and Istro-Romanian un.^[3] Its Romance cognates include Italian uno, French un and Spanish uno.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The form is in Coresi's Psalter of 1570, for example in Ps 4:10 and Ps 13:4.^[4] MDA2 dates the numeral itself to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[5] In Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 it glosses, among others, the Slavonic phrase for “one another”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Besides “one (of them), someone”, the old pronoun could stress oneness: the Bucharest Bible renders Deuteronomy 6:4 „Domnul unul este” “the Lord is one”.^[7] Ciorănescu notes that it could be used as an adjective with the sense “the only”, as in Coresi's „fără unul Dumnezeu” “but God alone”.^[3] He counts some of its phrases, such as unul și același “one and the same” and unul și unul “first-rate, each one excellent”, among the expressions Romanian shares with Greek.^[3]

The feminine una is used as a neuter for “something, one thing; a blow”, as in a-și pune una în gând “to set one's mind on something”.^[3][2] In correlation with altul it expresses contrast or reciprocity: unul de la altul “from each other”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1570 – unul in Coresi's Psalter.^[8]
• 1649 – unul in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[6]
• 1688 – unul over 580 times in the Bucharest Bible.^[9]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. one, someone: stands for a noun without saying exactly which person or thing is meant: Unul dintre ei a plecat devreme.^[2][10]
2. (with altul) the one … the other;^[2] unul pe altul “each other”.^[2]
3. a certain person, someone, often with a pejorative touch before a name.^[2]
4. (plural unii, unele) some, a part of; as a determiner, some, certain.^[2][10]
5. (feminine una, with neuter value) something, one thing: (cu) una cu alta “all things considered”, până una-alta “in the meantime”, asta-i încă una! “that's another one!”, of surprise or annoyance.^[2][10]

Related words

• un
• unu
• altul
• Latin ūnus

Usage notes

The genitive-dative is unuia, uneia, plural unora; the final -a marks the pronoun, as in acela.^[2][3] Before a noun the article and numeral forms un, o are used instead.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1174
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. un
4. ^ 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 13:4
5. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1380
6. ^ a b 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. unul
7. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. un
8. ^ 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 4:10
9. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 3:22
10. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. unul