urmare

Forms

urmare f (plural urmări)^[1]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of urma “to follow”, formed from Romanian urma + -re, the ending of the Romanian infinitive used as a verbal noun.^[1][2][3][4] The verb is a derivative of urmă “track, trace”, whose own origin is uncertain: Ciorănescu compares Italian orma and Albanian gjurmë and discusses several proposed etymons.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1660, in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[6] The 17th-century lexicons use it to render the Slavonic words for “following, succession” and “imitation”.^[7] MDA2 dates its first record to before 1683, in a text printed in Gaster's chrestomathy, where Gaster glosses it “sequence, series, consequence, rule, obedience”.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

The noun names the act of following and what follows from it.^[2] In the old language it also meant a way of acting, a deed, conduct and an example to follow: a dedication of 1700 offers a book to the prince „după urmarea împăraților de demult” “after the example of the emperors of old”, and Urmarea lui Hristos is “the imitation of Christ”.^[6][3] Klein's dictionary of 1801 still glosses it with Latin “imitatio” and “sequela”.^[9]

The sense “continuation” is well recorded from the 18th century on: a law book of 1780 speaks of „urmarea vieții” “the course of one's life”, and 19th-century writers promise “the continuation” of a story.^[4] The meaning “consequence, result” gave the conjunctional phrase prin urmare “therefore”, with an older în urmare.^[2][10] The modern senses “attending (courses)” and “reply to a letter or request” are later uses.^[3][11]

Timeline

• c. 1660 – first record, in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, glossing words for “following” and “imitation”.^[6][7]
• before 1683 – a text in Gaster's chrestomathy, MDA2's first record.^[3][8]
• 1688 – urmarea in the Bucharest Bible.^[12]
• 1700 – „după urmarea împăraților de demult” “after the example of the emperors of old”.^[6]
• 1780 – „urmarea vieții” “the course of one's life” in a law book.^[4]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses it “imitatio, sequela”.^[9]
• 1826 – the sense “procedure, way of acting” in a treatise on logic.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of following and its result; a consequence, an effect: Hotărârea a avut urmări grave.^[2][1]
2. A continuation or sequel, what comes after: Urmarea romanului apare la toamnă.^[3][1][13]
3. prin urmare (older în urmare): therefore, so.^[2][10]
4. a da urmare (an order, a request): to act on it, to carry it out.^[3][10]
5. The attending of courses or a school.^[3][1][11]
6. (obsolete) A way of acting, a deed, conduct; an example.^[2][6][1]

Related words

• urmă
• urmări
• următor
• urmaș

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 1176
3. ^ 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, 1391
4. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. urmare
5. ^ 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. urmă
6. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. urmare
7. ^ 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. urmare
8. ^ a b Gaster, M. (1891), Chrestomatie română: texte tipărite și manuscrise (sec. XVI–XIX), dialectale și populare, cu o introducere, gramatică și un glosar româno-francez, vol. II, Leipzig: Brockhaus / București: Socec
9. ^ 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. 465
10. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 596
11. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1383
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Esdra 5:73
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. urmare