vis

Forms

vis n (plural visuri or vise)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vīsum (“something seen, vision”), a noun made from the past participle of videō (“to see”), which in Latin already meant a vision, usually one seen in a dream.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1][7][8]}

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian vis, Megleno-Romanian vis and Istro-Romanian vis.^[2][9][10] Elsewhere in Romance the closest form is the Campidanese bizu; Occitan vis and Old French vis meant “opinion, view”.^[2][5][6] The verb visa “to dream” is a Romanian derivative for the REW, while Ciorănescu takes it from a Latin verb of the first conjugation.^[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Psalm 72:20 in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[11] The same verse already has visul “the dream” in Coresi's psalter of 1570.^[12] Among the old texts quoted in the DLR, Moxa's chronicle has „Priam văzu atunce un vis” “Priam then saw a dream”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The old language said a vedea un vis or a avea vis “to have a dream”.^[11][3] Interpreting dreams had its own vocabulary: the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 has ghicitor de visuri “dream interpreter”, and MDA2 lists the old phrases văzător de vise and tălmăcitor de visuri.^[13][14] Miron Costin already used the word for what is unreal: all is smoke and shadow, „visuri și părere” “dreams and seeming”.^[11]

The figurative senses grew from there: a daydream, a vain illusion, and a burning wish, as in a-și vedea visul cu ochii “to see one's dream come true”.^[4][11] Ciorănescu notes that the derivative visătorie “reverie” was formed after French rêverie.^[2]

Timeline

• 1570 – visul “the dream” in Coresi's psalter.^[12]
• 16th century – vis in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[11]
• 1649 – vise in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[15]
• c. 1672 – visuri in Miron Costin's verse.^[11]
• 1688 – vis, vise and visuri in the Bucharest Bible.^[16]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses it with Latin somnium.^[17]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda has ghicitor de visuri “dream interpreter”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dream: the images and mental events of the lighter phases of sleep;^[4][14] carte de vise “a dream book”.^[4][14]
2. (figurative) A dreamlike, unreal atmosphere or beauty;^[4][14] de vis “dreamlike, unbelievably beautiful”.^[4][14]
3. Reverie, daydreaming, meditation.^[4]
4. (figurative) A vain illusion; an aim that cannot be reached; a burning wish.^[4]

Related words

• visa
• Aromanian vis
• Latin vīsum

Usage notes

DEX 2009 gives the plural vise for the dreams of sleep and visuri for the figurative senses; older texts also have visure.^[4][14][3] Set phrases include ca prin vis “vaguely, as in a dream” and a-și vedea visul cu ochii “to have one's dearest wish come true”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. vis
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vis
4. ^ 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. 1201
5. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 178
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9383
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 181
9. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 382
10. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
11. ^ 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. vis
12. ^ 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 72:20
13. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 759
14. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1490
15. ^ 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. vise
16. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 37:8
17. ^ 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. 476