alas

Forms

alas (participle alãsatã)^[1]

• A first-class verb, also reflexive (mi-alas): aorist alãsai, imperfect alãsam, participle alãsatã, infinitive alãsari or alãsare.^[2][1] Katsanis and Dinas give the aorist alăsai and the participle alásatu.^[3]
• Without the initial a-: las, which Papahagi files separately and refers to alás,^[4] and Wiktionary's las and lasu beside alasu.^[1] Pascu heads it as (a)lasu and quotes lăsare from Boiagi.^[5]
• Other spellings: ALÁS (alăsái, -sát, -sáre) in Papahagi's dictionary;^[6] alásu in Mihăileanu;^[7] alâs, infinitive alisări, in Dalametra;^[8] alasu in DIARO;^[9] αλάσου (alásu) in Nikolaidis's Greek script.^[10]
• Regional forms: aläs in Weigand's texts;^[11] alăs in Pericle Papahagi's tales;^[12] alásu in Metsovo.^[13]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin laxō (“to loosen, release”).^[6][5][3][1]

The verb is common to the Eastern Romance languages: Romanian lăsa, Megleno-Romanian las and Istro-Romanian losu.^[14][15] The western cognates include Italian lasciare, French laisser, Spanish dejar and Portuguese deixar.^[16][14]

In Latin the verb first meant to make larger or wider and to slacken or undo;^[17] it is formed from laxus (“spacious, wide, loose”).^[17][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *lakso- for the adjective and derives it from Proto-Indo-European *slǵ-so- (“weak, faint”).^[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest dated record is Boiagi's grammar of 1813, which Pascu quotes for lăsare, with the sense of letting something out for hire.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the Latin sense of loosening, the verb came to mean to let go of something and to allow.^[1][6] The dictionaries add to abandon, to set free, to divorce and to neglect, and the reflexive to trust someone and to give up a habit.^[5][8][19] Cunia records the phrases lj-alas zbor (to send word to someone, to order), lj-alas sãnãtati (to take one's leave of someone) and mi-alas pri tini (to rely on someone).^[2] In Pericle Papahagi's tales ni lo, ni alăsă (he neither took nor left) means at once.^[12]

Timeline

• 1813 – lăsare in Boiagi's grammar, as Pascu quotes it.^[5]
• 1894 – aläs “to leave, let” in Weigand's glossary.^[11]
• 1901 – alásu in Mihăileanu's dictionary.^[7]
• 1906 – alâs, with five senses, in Dalametra's dictionary.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To let, allow.^[2][1][5]
2. To leave (something or someone); to abandon.^[1][6][8]
3. To renounce, give up.^[6][2]
4. To set free.^[8][5]
5. To divorce.^[8][19]
6. (reflexive) To trust (someone).^[8][2]

Word family

• paralas
• alãsãtonj

Related words

• alãsare
• alãsat
• alãsãturã
• Romanian lăsa

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 39
3. ^ a b Κατσάνης, Νικόλαος; Ντίνας, Κωνσταντίνος (1990), Γραμματική της κοινής κουτσοβλαχικής, Θεσσαλονίκη: Αρχείο Κουτσοβλαχικών Μελετών, p. 136
4. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 724
5. ^ a b c d e f g Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 30
6. ^ a b c d e Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 129
7. ^ a b Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 17
8. ^ a b c d e f g Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 1
9. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 223
10. ^ Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 19
11. ^ a b Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 291
12. ^ a b Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 516
13. ^ Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
14. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
15. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română
16. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
17. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
18. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
19. ^ a b Bara, Mariana (2024), Dictsiunarlu ti cathi dzuuã, online at dixionline.net