vesel

Forms

vesel m or n (feminine singular veselă, masculine plural veseli, feminine/neuter plural vesele)^[1] Old texts write it veasel: „se întoarce veasel și cu bucurie” “he returns cheerful and with joy”, in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic веселъ (veselŭ, “cheerful, joyful”), from Proto-Slavic *veselъ.^{[3][4][5][6][1]} Ciorănescu and Scriban compare Bulgarian весел (vesel).^[3][7] The Slavonic adjective is common in the Old Church Slavonic texts, glossing Greek words for “rejoicing” and “graceful”.^[8] The Bulgarian etymological dictionary notes that the Slavic word passed into Romanian and into Albanian veseli (“fertility”).^[9] Wiktionary traces the Proto-Slavic adjective to Proto-Indo-European *h₁wés- (“good”).^[1]

Its family came from Slavonic too: veselie from веселиѥ (veselije) and veseli from веселити (veseliti).^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1570, in the Fragmentul Todorescu.^[6] MDA2's first record is Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581: „cu bucurie și cu inimă bună și veaseli să întrăm” “with joy and good heart and cheerful let us enter” the fast.^[5][2] The sense was “cheerful, glad”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The adjective said first of people in good spirits, glad or, in church language, blessed.^[5][2] It extended to the voice, look and acts that express good humour, to people fond of jokes or of feasting, and to things that cheer: a pleasant landscape, a merry gathering.^[5][4] Colloquially and ironically a fi vesel means to be slightly drunk.^[5] It is also an adverb in folk poetry: the ballad Soarele și luna in Alecsandri has „Vesel cerul strălucea” “the sky shone merrily”.^[6]

The noun veselie and the verb veseli are recorded earlier than the adjective, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[5] Vesel is also a Romanian surname.^[10][1]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – veselie and veseli in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[5]
• c. 1570 – vesel in the Fragmentul Todorescu, the first record.^[6]
• 1581 – veaseli in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[5][2]
• 1688 – frequent in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of people: in good spirits, cheerful, merry: Copiii erau veseli după excursie.^[4][5]
2. Of a voice, a face or an act: expressing good humour or joy: un râs vesel.^[4][5]
3. That cheers one up; pleasant, delightful: o culoare veselă.^[4][5]
4. Done with joy, in a merry atmosphere: o petrecere veselă.^[4][5]
5. (colloquial, ironic) Slightly tipsy.^[5]

Word family

• veseli
• înveseli
• veselos
• veselnic
• veselie

Related words

• voios
• Old Church Slavonic веселъ (veselŭ)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vesel
3. ^ a b c 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. vesel
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1194
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1464
6. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. vesel
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1402
8. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
9. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 136
10. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. vesel
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Deuteronomy 12:18