vitreg

Forms

vitreg m or n (feminine singular vitregă, masculine plural vitregi, feminine/neuter plural vitrege)^[1] MDA2 records the popular variants vitrec, vitric and vitrig and the regional vetrigă and vitreag.^[2] The form vitrig occurs in Creangă: „mama cea vitrigă” “the stepmother”.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vītricus (“stepfather”).^[4][2][5][1] Ciorănescu stresses that the Latin word had a long /iː/, not a short one, and he rejects the view of Domaschke and Tiktin that the Romanian word is a learned borrowing; it is common in Muntenia, Moldavia and northern Transylvania.^[4] The Latin noun became an adjective in Romanian, first in the phrase for a stepfather, then for other relatives by remarriage.^[6][2]

Besides Romanian, only Sardinian kept the word: bidrigu in Logudorese and birdiu in Campidanese.^[6][7] Ciorănescu adds vitrico from Calabria and the Albanian forms vitruk, viter and vitkur.^[4] The origin of the Latin word is unclear: Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny derived it from Proto-Indo-European *dwi-tero- (“second, other”), but de Vaan notes that this does not explain the long ī.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1542.^[9] MDA2's first record is of before 1652, quoted from Tiktin.^[2] An instruction of 1685 urges the stepfather and the stepmother to be kind to their stepchildren: „tatăl vitreg și muma maștehă cătră fiiastrii lor”.^[10][9]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a relative by remarriage, in tată vitreg and mamă vitregă, and old and regional Romanian also used it as a noun, vitregul “the stepfather”, as in a document of 1811.^[10][2] It was then applied to half-siblings, children born of different marriages of one parent.^[3] Tiktin records the figurative sense “like a stepmother, unkind”, as in a 19th-century complaint about governments that did not care for the villages.^[9] Modern dictionaries define this sense as “hostile, unfavourable”, said of fate or circumstances.^[5][11] From it Romanian formed vitregie “hostility, harshness”.^[4]

The word passed from Romanian into Bulgarian dialects as витриг (vitrig) “stepfather”.^[4][12]

Timeline

• 1542 – the first record, according to Tiktin.^[9]
• before 1652 – MDA2's first record, quoted from Tiktin.^[2]
• 1685 – tatăl vitreg “the stepfather” beside muma maștehă “the stepmother”.^[10][9]
• 1801 – listed in Klein's dictionary.^[10]
• 1811 – vitregul as a noun, “the stepfather”, in a document.^[10]
• 1825 – vitregu “stepfather” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Related not by blood but through a parent's new marriage: tată vitreg “stepfather”, mamă vitregă “stepmother”, fiu vitreg “stepson”.^[5][2][1]
2. Of brothers and sisters: born of different marriages of the mother or the father;^[3][1] frate vitreg “half-brother”.^[3][1]
3. (figurative) hostile, unfavourable; also, full of obstacles.^[5][11][1]

Word family

• vitregie

Related words

• Sardinian bidrigu
• Latin vītricus

Usage notes

Old and regional Romanian used the word as a noun, vitreg “stepfather” and vitregă “stepmother”, beside many regional synonyms such as mașteră and maștehă.^[2][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1494
3. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 673
4. ^ 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. vitreg
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1202
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9400
7. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 179
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. vitreg
10. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vitreg
11. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. vitreg
12. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 155
13. ^ 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