Etymologically
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alas

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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
  • 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