Etymologically
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am

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am1 to have

Forms

am (third-person singular ari or are, simple perfect avui, imperfect aveam, participle avutã)[1]

  • Aorist avui, imperfect aveam, participle avutã, infinitive aveari or aveare.[2][3]
  • Present am, ai, are, avem, aveți, au;[4] Pericle Papahagi also records aem, aeţi and ar for the plural and the infinitives avere and aeare;[5] Weigand gives au or ar for the 3rd person plural.[6]
  • Other spellings: amu in Wiktionary;[1] amŭ in Bara's dictionary.[7]

Etymology

The verb “to have” is inherited from Latin habeō (“to have, hold”).[1][8][9] Wiktionary notes that the 1st person form and some others may be analogical, built on an old form of the 1st person plural, or influenced by the neighbouring languages.[1] Pascu explains several present forms from a Vulgar Latin change of conjugation, with *habāmus for the classical 1st person plural, and derives the aorist from habuī and the subjunctive from the Latin subjunctive.[8]

It is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian am, Megleno-Romanian am and Istro-Romanian am.[9][10] Pușcariu notes that the verb continues habeō in all the Romance languages.[9]

De Vaan traces habeō to Proto-Italic *χab/f-ē- (“has taken; has, holds”) and Proto-Indo-European *gʰh₁b(ʰ)-(e)i- (“to take”).[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest dictionary record is Weigand's glossary of 1894, which gives am as “I have” and its 3rd person are as “there is”.[6]

Semantic evolution

Besides “to have, own”, the verb is the auxiliary of the perfect.[1][6] Papahagi lists the senses “to have; there is”, “to get on, agree”, “to pull”, “to believe” and “to be, exist”: are “there is”, ári un mes di cindu murí (“it is a month since he died”).[3] For “there is” and “to believe” he compares the parallel uses of έχω (écho), kam, имам (imam) and var.[3] Cunia records many set phrases in which am expresses a state: am arshini “I am ashamed”, am njilã “I pity”.[2]

Timeline

  • 1894 – am “I have” in Weigand's glossary.[6]
  • 1901 – am “to have, possess”, also as an auxiliary, in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[4]
  • 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin habēre.[8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. to have, to own.[1][2][3]
  2. (auxiliary, with a past participle) to have.[1][4]
  3. (3rd person) there is, there are; to be, to exist.[3][6]
  4. to get on, to agree; to pull.[3]
  5. to believe, to think.[3][5]

am2 but

Forms

am, also ama.[12][13]

  • Other spellings: ama in Pericle Papahagi, Mihăileanu and Boiagi, am in Dalametra, Pericle Papahagi and Mihăileanu;[12] Papahagi's dictionary has separate articles AM² and AMA.[14]

Etymology

The conjunction “but” is borrowed from Modern Greek αμμά (ammá, “but”), according to Pascu, who compares Bulgarian ама (ama), Serbo-Croatian ama and Albanian ama “but”.[12] Papahagi instead compares Greek αμά (amá, “as soon as”) and derives it from Turkish amma (“but”).[14]

The Greek side is supported by Kriaras, who lists αμμά (ammá) among the forms of αμή (amí, “but”), recorded from the 10th century and traced to Ancient Greek εἰ μή (ei mḗ, “if not, except”).[15] The Turkish word, amma or ama, is from Arabic أَمَّا (ammā, “as for”).[16][17]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest dictionary record is Mihăileanu's of 1901, which glosses am as “but, however”, as in am tine nu scíî çi cură (“but you do not know what is going on”).[4]

Semantic evolution

Besides “but”, Papahagi gives “at least” and “perhaps”.[14] In questions it is “is it that…?”: Pascu and Dalametra both record this use.[12][18] Pericle Papahagi's tale glossary records am cum!, ironically “of course not! I could not care less”.[5]

Timeline

  • 1901 – am “but, however” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[4]
  • 1906 – am in Dalametra's dictionary.[18]
  • 1925 – Pascu derives it from Greek.[12]

Meanings

Conjunction

  1. but, however.[14][4][13]
  2. at least; perhaps.[14]
  3. (in questions) is it that…?[12][18]
  • avut
  • avutsãscu
  • Romanian am

Usage notes

Cunia's am³ is a form of an “year”.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 51
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 87
  4. ^ a b c d e f Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 22
  5. ^ a b c Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 520
  6. ^ a b c d e Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 291
  7. ^ Bara, Mariana (2024), Dictsiunarlu ti cathi dzuuã, online at dixionline.net
  8. ^ a b c 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, 47
  9. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 11
  11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  12. ^ a b c d e f 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. 2, 10
  13. ^ a b c Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 52
  14. ^ a b c d e Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 88
  15. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  16. ^ Nişanyan, Sevan, Nişanyan Sözlük: Çağdaş Türkçenin Etimolojisi (online edition)
  17. ^ Tietze, Andreas (2002–2018), Tarihi ve Etimolojik Türkiye Türkçesi Lugatı, Istanbul: Simurg; Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, p. 375
  18. ^ a b c Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 1