nou

Forms

nou m (feminine noauã, masculine plural noi, feminine plural noauã or nali/nale)^[1]

• Cunia gives the feminine noauã or nauã, the masculine plural noi and the feminine plural noauã, nauã or nali/nale;^[2] Wiktionary also has nãu and não as alternative forms.^[1]
• Other spellings: NOŬ, plural noi, in Papahagi's dictionary;^[3] nou, feminine nao, in Weigand's glossary;^[4] Nou, with the feminine noauă, noăo or nao and the feminine plural noauă or nale, in Papahagi's glossary of his tales.^[5]
• In Kavalliotis's word list of 1770 the feminine appears in nao vakă, in Meyer's reading.^[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin novus (“new”),^[3][7][1] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *nowo- and Proto-Indo-European *neuo- (“new, young”).^[8] Its cognates include Ancient Greek νέος (néos) and the English word new.^[1][9]

The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian nou, Megleno-Romanian nou and Istro-Romanian now.^[10][11][12] The western cognates include Italian nuovo, French neuf, Spanish nuevo and Portuguese novo.^[10][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in Kavalliotis's Greek–Aromanian–Albanian word list of 1770, where nao vakă renders Modern Greek δαμάλη (damáli, “heifer”);^[6] Meyer explains nao as the feminine of nou "new".^[6]

Semantic evolution

Latin novus meant "new".^[9] Aromanian kept the sense: Cunia defines the word as made a short time ago, said or shown for the first time, and taking the place of something old.^[14] Papahagi's tales have fustâni noauă "new dresses", the doubled nounou "brand new" and di nou "again".^[5] Kavalliotis's nao vakă "heifer" uses the feminine for a young animal,^[6] and Meyer-Lübke records an Aromanian noa "heifer".^[13]

Timeline

• 1770 – nao vakă “heifer” in Kavalliotis's word list.^[6]
• 1894 – nou, feminine nao, in Weigand's glossary.^[4]
• 1905 – Nou in Papahagi's glossary of his tales.^[5]
• 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin novus.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. new; made a short time ago.^[14][3][1]
2. Said or shown for the first time.^[14]
3. Taking the place of something old.^[14]

Related words

• Romanian nou

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 753
3. ^ a b c Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 780
4. ^ a b Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 320
5. ^ a b c Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 662
6. ^ a b c d e Meyer, Gustav (1895), Albanesische Studien IV: Das griechisch-südrumänisch-albanesische Wörterverzeichnis des Kavalliotis, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, phil.-hist. Classe 132, p. 40
7. ^ a b 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, 128
8. ^ 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 Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
12. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 208
13. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ a b c d Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)