vreodată

Etymology

It is from Romanian vreo + odată (“once”), the indefinite “some, any” joined to the adverb of time.^[1][2][3][4] odată is in turn a univerbation of o “one” and dată “time”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record found is in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1672–1673.^[5] MDA2 cites it first from the Bucharest Bible of 1688, which uses it four times, for instance in Psalm 93:8.^[1][6] The sense there is “at some time, ever”.^[1]

Semantic evolution

The adverb refers to an indefinite time in the past (“once, formerly”) or in the future (“some day”).^[1][2][3] The old chroniclers used it both ways: Cantemir for an unlikely future event, Neculce for a possible return of past troubles.^[3] Klein's dictionary of 1801 glosses it with Latin aliquando, and the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 with quondam, aliquando.^[7][8] In negative clauses it has come to mean “never”.^[9][1]

Timeline

• 1672–1673 – in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, the earliest record found.^[5]
• 1688 – four times in the Bucharest Bible.^[6][1]
• 1801 – Vreodáta “at some time” in Klein's dictionary.^[7]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda, glossed “quondam, aliquando”.^[8]

Meanings

Adverb

1. ever, at some time in the past, formerly: Ai fost vreodată la mare?^[2][1][4]
2. At some time in the future, some day.^[2][1]
3. (in negative clauses) never: Nu l-am văzut vreodată.^[9][1]

Related words

• odată
• niciodată
• cândva

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1519
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1208
3. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vreodată
4. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b 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. vreodată
6. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Psalm 93:8
7. ^ 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. 477
8. ^ 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. 765
9. ^ a b Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. vreodată