zi

Forms

zi f (plural zile)^[1] Old texts write dzuo and zio: „Şi deca fu dzuo” “and when it was day” in the Codicele Voronețean, and „Până iaste zio să lucrăm” “let us work while it is day” in Coresi.^[2] Beside zi there is ziuă, taken from the articled form ziua.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin diēs (“day”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} Wiktionary suggests that the articled ⟨ziua⟩ may continue Vulgar Latin *dilla, the indefinite form being shortened.^[1] The Latin noun was formed from the accusative ⟨diem⟩ and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws (“heaven, sky”).^[1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian dzuã, Megleno-Romanian zuuă and Istro-Romanian zi.^[3][1][7][8] The Romance cognates include Dalmatian dai, Italian dì, Catalan dia, Spanish día and Portuguese dia.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is dzuo in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in Psalm 120:6.^[9] MDA2 and the DLR cite the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583): „Şi deca fu dzuo” “and when it was day”.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The DLR and MDA2 begin with “daylight”, then “the time between sunrise and sunset”;^[2][4][3] DER adds “date, term”, “feast day or name day” and, in the plural, “time, epoch” and “life”.^[2][4][3] The sense “life” lies behind the derivative zili “to grant long life”.^[3] The doublet ziuă is kept mostly in phrases such as se face ziuă “day breaks” and de cu ziuă “before dawn”.^[3]

The word appears in the compounds astăzi, azi and deunăzi.^[5][3] The neologism ziar “newspaper” was formed after Latin diārium.^[3]

Timeline

• early 16th century – dzuo in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[9]
• c. 1563–1583 – dzuo in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4][2]
• 1570 – zio, zile and zilele in Coresi's psalter.^[10]
• 1615 – ziuă in “day began to break”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. day: the time between sunrise and sunset; daylight.^[11][1]
2. A period of 24 hours, one turn of the Earth on its axis.^[11]
3. A date or appointed day; a feast or name day.^[3][4]
4. In the plural, a time or epoch; one's life.^[3]

Word family

• zili
• ziler
• zilnic
• deunăzi
• ziar
• ziarist
• ziaristică
• astăzi
• azi

Related words

• ziuă
• Aromanian dzuã
• Latin diēs

Usage notes

Common phrases include de toate zilele “everyday, ordinary”, zi de zi “day by day” and la zi “up to date”.^[11] The articled ziua is used as an adverb, “in the daytime”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. zi
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. zi
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, 1573
5. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 181
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2632
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 340
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 120:6
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 67:21
11. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1224