văduv

Forms

văduv m or n (feminine singular văduvă, masculine plural văduvi, feminine/neuter plural văduve)^[1] The oldest form is the feminine văduo: the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki has „Să fie feciorii săraci și muiarea lui văduo” “let his children be orphans and his wife a widow” (Psalm 108).^[2][3] Old and regional variants are văduu, vădoo and vădovă;^[4][5] Transylvania also has vădan, and Moldavia văduvoi.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin viduus (“deprived of a spouse”), and its feminine văduvă continues vidua (“widow”).^[5][4][2][6] It survives in Aromanian veduu.^[7][5] Its Romance cognates include Italian vedovo, French veuf, Catalan viudo, Spanish viudo and Portuguese viúvo.^[5][6]

The regular outcome was the old ⟨văduu⟩; the second ⟨v⟩ came from the feminine, as in Italian, and Tiktin compares măduvă.^[6][5][1] Cihac took the word from Old Church Slavonic въдова (vŭdova, “widow”), a view Ciorănescu rejects.^[5][8] De Vaan traces the Latin adjective to Proto-Indo-European *h₁ui-dʰh₁-eu-o- (“separated”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the feminine văduo “widow” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, of the early 16th century (Psalm 108).^[4][3] The later 16th-century psalters of Coresi and the Psaltirea Scheiană have the same form.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the Latin sense “widowed”, used as an adjective and as a noun, and is in general use.^[10][5] As in Latin, it also has a figurative sense “deprived of something, empty”.^[10][5]

Ciorănescu explains vădan as standing for *văduvan.^[5] The feminine diminutive văduvioară also names a fish and a plant, the sweet scabious.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – the feminine văduo in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[4][3]
• 1570 – văduo in Coresi's Psalter.^[3]
• c. 1573–1578 – văduo in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. widowed: having lost one's wife or husband by death and not remarried.^[10][1]
2. (figurative) Deprived of something; empty, bare.^[10][5]

Noun

1. A widower; feminine văduvă, a widow.^[10][1]

Word family

• văduvă
• văduvi
• vădăni
• văduvie

Related words

• vădan
• Aromanian veduu

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. văduv
3. ^ a b c d e f 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 108:8
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, 1420
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. văduv
6. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 174
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1106
8. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 442
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1185