Etymologically
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cãtrã

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Forms

cãtrã (preposition)[1]

  • Also cãtã, which Cunia refers to this word.[2]
  • Other spellings: CĂ'TRĂ, CÎ'TRĂ and CĂ'TĂ in Papahagi's dictionary;[3] câtrâ in DIARO's Romanian-based spelling;[4] cătră in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[5]
  • Pascu heads it CATRA, from Boiagi and other sources, and adds cîtră from Nikolaidis, Dalametra and Papahagi's tales, cătă from Papahagi's tales and cîtă from Nikolaidis.[6]
  • Among the Fărșerots the short form cată is recorded.[7]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin contra (“against, opposite”),[3][6] which in Latin meant "in front of, against".[8][9] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *kom-tero- (“the other of two who meet, opposite”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱom- (“with”).[8]

Candrea and Densusianu explain the sound changes by the word's unstressed position in the sentence: the n was lost as in the verbs compounded with con-, and the o became ă as in other unstressed words.[7] The word is shared by the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian către (older cătră), Megleno-Romanian cutru and Istro-Romanian câtra.[10][7][11] Further west it continues as Italian contra, French contre and Spanish contra.[10][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest dated record is Boiagi's grammar of 1813, one of the sources in which Pascu found the word.[6][13] The earliest dictionary sense is "towards", as in Mihăileanu's cătră seară "towards evening".[5]

Semantic evolution

Latin contra meant facing someone, and against.[9] Pușcariu notes that Old Romanian still used the word in the hostile sense, beside the friendly and neutral ones.[10] Aromanian uses it only for direction and approach: towards a place or a person, as in s-turnă câtrâ mini "he turned towards me", and for an approximate time, as in câtrâ seară "towards evening".[4][3] Cunia also gives the sense "near".[14] Papahagi's examples include laying out the dead with the face towards the sunrise.[3] DIARO records the saying mini câtrâ tini, și-tini câtrâ drați "I towards you, and you towards the devils", said of someone who does not listen.[4]

Timeline

  • 1813 – used in Boiagi's grammar, as cited by Pascu.[6][13]
  • 1901 – cătră seară “towards evening” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[5]
  • 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin contra.[6]
  • 1997 – câtrâ in DIARO.[4]

Meanings

Preposition

  1. towards, in the direction of (a place).[14][3][4]
  2. Towards, about (of time): câtrâ seară “towards evening”.[14][4]
  3. To, towards (a person spoken to or looked at).[14][4]
  4. near, close to.[14]
  • Romanian către

References

  1. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 275
  2. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 271
  3. ^ a b c d e Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 354
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 207
  5. ^ a b c Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 59
  6. ^ a b c d e 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, 61
  7. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
  8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 27
  11. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
  12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  13. ^ a b Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 54
  14. ^ 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)