vostru

Forms

vostru m or n (feminine singular voastră, masculine plural voștri, feminine/neuter plural voastre)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin voster (“your (plural)”), the popular form that replaced Classical vester.^[2][3][1][4] The Oxford Latin Dictionary calls it an archaic form of the Classical word.^[5] Wiktionary traces the Latin word to Proto-Italic *westeros.^[1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian vostru, Megleno-Romanian vostru and Istro-Romanian vostru.^[2][6][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian vestro, Italian vostro, Occitan vostre, Catalan vostre, Old French vostre, French votre, Spanish vuestro and Portuguese vosso.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[3] The forms of the paradigm are all there: voastre (Psalm 4:5) and voastră (Psalm 30:32), and also vostru and voștri, all with the sense “your”, belonging to a group addressed.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its Latin meaning: it refers to what belongs to the people addressed, a group that includes the person spoken to.^[2][11] Used as a pronoun it is preceded by the possessive article al, a, ai, ale: ale voastre “yours”.^[11][3] In popular speech the masculine plural ai voștri means “your family, your relatives”.^[11]

The 16th-century psalters already use all four forms, and the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has hundreds of examples of each.^[12][13]

Timeline

• early 16th century – voastre, voastră, vostru and voștri in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[3][9]
• 1570 – voastre and voștri in Coresi's psalter.^[12]
• 1688 – vostru, voastră, voștri and voastre throughout the Bucharest Bible.^[14]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. yours (plural): that which belongs to the people addressed; used with the possessive article: Mașina e a voastră? “Is the car yours?”^[11][3]
2. (popular, masculine plural) ai voștri: your family, your relatives.^[11]
3. (feminine plural) ale voastre: your affairs, your own things.^[11]

Determiner

1. your (plural): belonging to or concerning the people addressed: casa voastră “your house”.^[11][1]

Related words

• voi
• Aromanian vostru
• Latin voster

Usage notes

After a noun with the definite article the determiner takes no article (casa voastră); it takes the possessive article when it comes before the noun, follows an unarticled noun, or is separated from its noun by other words.^[3][11] MDA2 records old and popular variants vost, voastă and the regional voz.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. vostru
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1515
4. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vostru
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1122
7. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 383
8. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
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 4:5
10. ^ 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 30:32
11. ^ 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. 1207
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 23:7
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. FACEREA 9:2
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. FACEREA 9:5