zeu

Forms

zeu m (plural zei, feminine equivalent zee or zeiță)^[1] The old texts write dzeu: „Derept-ce dosădești preutul Dzeului?” “Why do you revile God's priest?” (Acts 23:4, Codicele Voronețean).^[2][3] MDA2 records the variants zău and regional zo.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin deus (“god”).^{[4][2][3][5][1]} The Latin word comes from deivos, *deiwos and Proto-Indo-European *deywós (“god”).^[1][6] The interjection zău “truly, by God” is the same word, and Dumnezeu “God” is formed with it.^[2][7][8]

The REW notes that the Old Romanian noun lives on today in an oath “by God, truly”.^[9] Its Romance cognates include Italian dio, French dieu, Spanish dios and Portuguese deus.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is dzeului “of God” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[4][3] In the 16th-century texts the word means the God of the Bible: Coresi's Psalter has „Tu ești Zeul spăsitoriul mieu” “you are the God of my salvation” (Psalm 24).^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts zeu and dumnezeu were used alike for God.^[11][4] The modern sense “pagan god, idol” came with the literary language of the 19th century, which used the word for the gods of Greece and Rome.^[2][11] An Almanac of 1832 describes a façade with „statuile ziilor Apolon și Diana” “the statues of the gods Apollo and Diana”.^[3]

Figurative senses followed: a person admired for exceptional gifts, and, ironically, a powerful person, a boss.^[5][4] A fi în secretele zeilor means “to be privy to what only the people at the top know”.^[5]

Timeline

• early 16th century – dzeului in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[4][3]
• c. 1563–1583 – preutul dzeului “God's priest” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3][2]
• 1570 – zeul in Coresi's Psalter.^[10]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda glosses zeu as Latin deus and notes the oath zău.^[8]
• 1832 – zii “the gods” Apollo and Diana.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A god of a polytheistic religion, a deity or idol.^[5][1]
2. A statue or image of a god.^[4][12]
3. (figurative) A person with exceptional physical and moral gifts.^[5][13]
4. (colloquial, ironic) A powerful person, a boss.^[5]
5. (obsolete) God, in the monotheistic religions.^[4]

Word family

• zeiță
• zee

Related words

• zău
• Dumnezeu
• Latin deus

Usage notes

DEX has a separate headword zeu, an interjection, which is a variant of zău “truly, honestly”.^[5][14] The feminine is zeiță or zee.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. zeu
3. ^ 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. zeu
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1565
5. ^ 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. 1223
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
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. 769
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ 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 24:5
11. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 708
12. ^ Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. zeu
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. zeu
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1564