zece

Forms

zece (plural zeci)^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin decem (“ten”), from Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥ (“ten”).^{[3][4][2][1][5]} The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian dzațe, Megleno-Romanian zeți and Istro-Romanian zece.^[3][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian dik, Italian dieci, French dix, Catalan deu, Spanish diez and Portuguese dez.^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), and Tiktin cites it from the same text, in Acts 25:6.^[4][9] MDA2 also lists the rare old forms diace and diece.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Besides the number itself, the plural zeci came to mean an indefinite large number, “dozens”.^[2] The word forms the tens from douăzeci to nouăzeci and the teens such as cincisprezece.^[3][2] In the old language a zecea “the tenth” was the tithe: the Bucharest Bible has „Dau a zecea den toate câte câștig” “I give a tenth of all I earn” (Luke 18:12).^[9] Graur notes that the same Latin family gave dijmă “tithe” through Hungarian, from Latin decima.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – zece in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4][9]
• 1664 – the plural zeci in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1688 – a zecea “the tithe” in the Bucharest Bible.^[9]

Meanings

Numeral

1. ten: the number between nine and eleven, written 10 or X; in the plural zeci, “dozens”, a large number.^[2][1][4]
2. As the second element of the numerals eleven to nineteen and of the tens: cincisprezece “fifteen”, patruzeci “forty”.^[2]

Word family

• zecilea
• zecime
• zeciuială
• zeciuitor
• înzeci
• zecimal

Related words

• dijmă
• Aromanian dzațe
• Latin decem

Usage notes

Idioms: a asculta cu zece urechi “to listen with ten ears”, very closely, and a avea zece vieți “to have ten lives”, said of someone who keeps escaping danger.^[2][4] The plural zeciuri is old and regional.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1222
3. ^ 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. zece
4. ^ 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, 1561
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 431
7. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2497
9. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. zece
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 37
11. ^ 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. zeci