vită

Forms

vită f (plural vite)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vīta (“life”), the same word as Italian vita, French vie, Spanish vida and Portuguese vida, which all kept the original sense of life.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} It survives south of the Danube as Megleno-Romanian vită.^[6]

The shift of meaning from life to a living creature and then to an animal or beast is unusual, and Ciorănescu calls it curious.^[2] Șăineanu and Tiktin explain it through the idea of a living thing.^[2][7] Tiktin compares Old Church Slavonic животъ (životŭ, “life; animal”), and Pușcariu notes that in Megleno-Romanian the descendant of the word for life now means a living being.^[7][6] Old Church Slavonic influence on the sense has been suggested as well.^[2][1] Ciorănescu also allows a path from life to livelihood and food, since the Spanish word can also mean food, and compares French viande.^[2]

Two other derivations have been rejected.^[6][2] Meyer and Densusianu took it from Albanian vjetë (“yearling calf”), which Pușcariu found too far in sound and sense;^[6] Diez and Cihac posited a lost Latin base of vitulus (“calf”), whose short vowel would not have given Romanian /i/.^[6][2] Wiktionary mentions a further idea: a back-formation from vițea, the word for a heifer, which would make the cow the first referent.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Romanian texts have the word from the early 16th century, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[8][9] There it means any animal: the Codicele Voronețean has „Și vită se aducă cumu se încalece Pavelu” “and let a beast be brought for Paul to ride” (Acts 23:24), and the Psaltirea Scheiană puts sheep, oxen and „vita câmpilor” “the beasts of the field” under man's feet (Psalm 8:8).^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the old language vită was a general word for an animal, often in a collective singular.^[9][7] Moxa's chronicle says that until the fifth day of creation there was „nice o vită nice într-apă, nice în văzduh a zbura”, “no creature either in the water or flying in the air”, so the word could cover fish and birds too.^[7][9] This wide sense is now archaic and regional.^[5]

The current sense narrowed to large domestic animals, especially cattle.^[4] Phrases sort them by size: vite mari or vite albe are oxen and cows, vite mici or vite mărunte are sheep and goats.^[4][5] Klein's dictionary of 1801 has vită cu coarne “horned cattle” and carne de vită “beef”, and the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 glosses the word as Latin pecus and German Rindvieh.^[10][11] As an insult it means a coarse or stupid person, often as vită încălțată “a beast in shoes”.^[4][12][7] In some regions it means the bees of a hive, or a comb with young bees.^[5][12]

Timeline

• early 16th century – vitele, vitelor and vită in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[8]
• c. 1563–1583 – vită “beast to ride” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[7]
• c. 1573–1578 – the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[7]
• 1664 – vitele in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons.^[13]
• 1688 – the Bucharest Bible.^[14]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary: vită cu coarne “horned cattle”.^[10]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda: “cattle”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large domestic animal, especially one of the horned cattle; more generally, an animal: Țăranul a dus vitele la păscut.^[4][5]
2. (figurative, offensive) A coarse, insensitive or stupid person.^[4][15]
3. (regional, collective) The bees of a beehive.^[12][5]

Related words

• viață
• Latin vīta

Usage notes

Vite mari (or albe) “oxen and cows” and vite mici (or mărunte) “sheep and goats” are the usual set phrases;^[4][16] vite cornute are horned cattle.^[4][16] Wiktionary records the regional form jită.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. vită
3. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9385
4. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1201
5. ^ 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, 1493
6. ^ a b c d e Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 178
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. vită
8. ^ 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 8:7
9. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vită
10. ^ 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. 476
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b c Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. vită
13. ^ 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. vitele
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 1:21
15. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. vită
16. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. vită