voie

Forms

voie f (plural voi)^[1] MDA2 lists a rare old variant voaie and the old spelling voe.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic волꙗ (volja, “will”), the Slavonic of the church and chancery: DEX, MDA2, DLR, Tiktin and Scriban agree.^{[3][2][4][5][6]} DER names the word in Serbian, Slovene, Polish and Russian, after Miklosich, Cihac, Conev and Tiktin.^[7] In Old Church Slavonic the noun meant “will”.^[8] Bulgarian has воля (volja).^[9]

DER compares it with the Romanian verb vrea “to want” and its variant forms with ⟨voi-⟩ and ⟨vroi-⟩, and with voios.^[7] Wiktionary reports a view that it continues Vulgar Latin *volia on volō (“to want”), as Italian voglia might, and the objection that such a form would probably have given ⟨*voaie⟩, as Latin folia gave foaie.^[1] Tiktin traces the phrases for “good mood” and “bad mood” to the Slavic phrases for “good will” and “ill will”, and the sense “permission” to the Slavic words for “permit” formed on the same stem.^[5] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 compared the Italian word.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the early 16th-century Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, which already has voia in Psalm 1:2, and MDA2 dates the word from the same psalter.^[11][2] Tiktin quotes it from the Codicele Voronețean, in Acts 20:27.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is “will, intention”, used of God in fie voia ta “thy will be done”, as in the Bible of 1688.^[5][4] Tiktin notes that the word now lives mostly in set phrases, with voință taking its place in the sense “will”.^[5] Old texts used it for “pleasure, desire” and for “favour”: Neculce writes pentru voia banilor “for the sake of money”, and Varlaam that God has no voie pentru daruri “favour for gifts”.^[5]

Voie bună and voie rea “good and bad mood” occur in the 17th century.^[4] Miron Costin has mare mâhniciune și voie rea “great sorrow and ill humour”.^[4] The sense “permission” lives in phrases such as a da voie “to allow”.^[3][6] DLR quotes aveau voie “they were allowed” from a historical work by Panaitescu.^[4][3]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – voia in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 1:2), the first record.^[11][2]
• c. 1563-1583 – voie in the Codicele Voronețean (Acts 20:27).^[5]
• 1571 – voia lui “his delight” in a psalter fragment.^[4]
• 1617 – voie “decision, agreement” in a document.^[4]
• 1648 – de va fi voia lui Dumnezeu “if it be the will of God” in the New Testament of 1648.^[5]
• 1649 – voia glosses Slavonic волѧ in Mardarie's lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – fie voia ta “thy will be done” in the Bucharest Bible (Matthew 6:10).^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. will, wish, intention;^[1] cu voie “on purpose”, fără voie “involuntarily”, de voie, de nevoie “willy-nilly”.^[3][1]
2. Desire, pleasure; freedom to choose: în voie “at ease, freely”, a face pe voia cuiva “to do as someone wishes”.^[3]
3. Mood, humour, chef: voie bună “good spirits”, voie rea “low spirits”.^[3]
4. permission, leave: a cere voie “to ask permission”, cu voia dumneavoastră “with your permission”.^[3][1]

Word family

• învoi
• învoială
• învoitor
• voios

Related words

• nevoie
• vrea
• voință

Usage notes

The plural voi is rare, and occurs mostly in phrases such as a împlini voile cuiva “to fulfil someone's wishes”.^[2][3] Voia la dumneata ca la banul Ghica is a set phrase for “do just as you please”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 1505
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1204
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. voie
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. voie
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1418
7. ^ a b 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. voie
8. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org, p. s.v. волꙗ
9. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 175
10. ^ 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. 760
11. ^ 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 1:2
12. ^ 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. voia