viu

Forms

viu m or n (feminine singular vie, plural vii)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vīvus (“alive, living”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós (“alive”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]}

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian viu, Megleno-Romanian viu and Istro-Romanian viu.^[2][6] Byhan and Popovici give the Aromanian form as yiu.^[7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian vivo, Spanish vivo, Portuguese vivo, Sardinian biu, Occitan viu, Catalan viu and French vif.^[2]

The noun viață “life” is formed on it, with the suffix of roșeață and negreață;^[2] Pușcariu and Candrea derived it from a Latin *vivitia, and Cipariu from vivācem.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[3][9] The Codicele Voronețean has it in Acts 20:12, where the young man is brought back alive: „Aduseră pruncul viu” “they brought the boy alive”.^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

Beside “alive, living” the word means “lively, quick” and “vivid, intense”; used as a noun it meant a living being, and also the heart or core of something.^[2][11] In Christian language it describes what is eternal.^[11] The sense “flowing” lives on in apă vie “spring water”, and a derivative survives almost only in apă vioară “clear spring water”.^[5][2]

Timeline

• early 16th century – viu in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3][9]
• 16th century – „pruncul viu” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4][10]
• 1570 – viu in Coresi's Psalter.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. alive, living; endowed with life;^[11][3][1] de viu “while still alive”, prin viu grai “by word of mouth”.^[11][3][1]
2. Still existing, enduring: limbă vie “a living language”.^[11]
3. lively, full of life, quick in movement.^[11][2]
4. Of plants, fresh and vigorous; of water, fast-flowing; of fire, blazing.^[11]
5. Of sounds, light and colours, strong, bright, vivid; of feelings, intense.^[11]

Word family

• viață
• viețui
• viețuitor
• viețuitoare
• conviețui
• vietate
• vioi
• voios
• vioiciune
• voioșie

Related words

• Latin vīvus

Usage notes

The feminine vie is spelled like vie “vineyard”, an unrelated word.^[11] Viu sau mort means “dead or alive”, at any cost.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. viu
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, 1497
4. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. viu
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9420
6. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
7. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 383
8. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 165
9. ^ 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 17:50
10. ^ 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. viu
11. ^ 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. 1202
12. ^ 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 26:7