vedea

Forms

vedea (third-person singular present vede, past participle văzut, third-person subjunctive vadă), 2nd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin videō (“to see”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd-.^[2][3][1] It survives in all four branches: Aromanian ved, Megleno-Romanian ved and Istro-Romanian vedu.^[2][4][5] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian vedar, Italian vedere, French voir, Spanish ver and Portuguese ver.^[2]

The first person ⟨văd⟩ has a variant ⟨văz⟩, made on the model of the second person ⟨vezi⟩.^[2] Ciorănescu thinks the phrase ⟨văzând și făcând⟩ “acting as things turn out” may translate a Modern Greek phrase.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to Neacșu's letter of 1521.^[6] The verb is in the Hurmuzaki Psalter of the early 16th century, and MDA2 gives the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583).^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

From “to perceive with the eyes” the verb came to mean “to witness”, “to visit, to meet”, “to look after”, “to notice, to realise” and “to understand”; the reflexive means “to appear, to seem”.^[8][2] Ciorănescu also records the judicial sense “to try a case”, the medical “to examine a patient” and a slang sense “to have money”.^[2] MDA2 records old and regional forms such as veade, vază and the participles vezut and văzt.^[3]

Its derivatives include văz “sight”, vază “esteem”, vedere “sight, view” and nevăzut “invisible”.^[2] Prevedea and întrevedea were modelled on French prévoir and entrevoir, and revedea on revoir.^[2]

Timeline

• 1521 – first record, in Neacșu's letter.^[6]
• early 16th century – in the Hurmuzaki Psalter.^[7]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To see, perceive with the eyes: Nu văd nimic fără ochelari.;^[8][1] a vedea lumina zilei “to be born”.^[8][1]
2. To witness, be present at an event.^[8]
3. To examine, to look into something to be sure of it.^[8]
4. (reflexive) To find oneself in a situation: Se văzu singur în casă.^[8]
5. To meet; to visit: Ne vedem mâine.^[8]
6. To look after, take care of: Vezi-ți de treabă! “mind your own business!”^[8]
7. To notice, realise; to regard: a fi bine văzut “to be well thought of”.^[8]
8. To understand; to imagine.^[8]
9. (reflexive, impersonal) To seem: se vede că... “apparently...”.^[8]

Word family

• vază
• văzător
• atotvăzător
• nevăzut
• vedeală
• vedere
• vederos
• revedea
• prevedea
• neprevăzător
• neprevăzut

Related words

• vis
• vizibil
• Aromanian ved
• Latin videō

Usage notes

The Muntenian exclamation mai vedea! “never!” is a separate word, from Romani mai feder.^[3][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. vedea
3. ^ 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, 1446
4. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1106
5. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 324
6. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. vedea
7. ^ a b 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 5:4
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1190
9. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vedea