nu

Forms

nu^[1]

• Other spellings: no in Dalametra, Pericle Papahagi and Boiagi;^[2] νου in Nikolaidis's Greek script, transcribed nu;^[3] NU in Papahagi's dictionary.^[4]
• Before a vowel it is not elided: nu with a becomes no-a (no-avea), never n'.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nōn (“not”).^[4][2][1] Nikolaidis gave the same Latin source.^[3]

The adverb is shared by the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian nu, Megleno-Romanian nu and Istro-Romanian nu.^[7][8][9] Candrea and Densusianu explain nu from the stressed form of nōn, which lost its final -n, first before consonants; they give Aromanian nu and no.^[10] It continues all over Romance: Italian non, French non, Spanish no, Portuguese não.^[11]

De Vaan derives nōn from *ne oinom (“not one”), with the old negation ne and the ancestor of ūnus (“one”);^[12] ne goes back to Proto-Italic *ne and Proto-Indo-European *ne (“not”).^[12] The OLD likewise derives it, probably, from the old form noenum.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is in Kavalliotis's word list of 1770, where nu translates όχι (óchi, “no”).^[14]

Semantic evolution

Aromanian keeps the Latin sense as the negation of a verb (“not”) and as the answer “no”.^[1][15] In questions it can have an affirmative sense: nu ti ntreb (literally “don't I ask you”) means “I ask you”.^[4][5] With the imperative it forms the prohibitive in the Ohrid–Struga dialect.^[16]

Timeline

• 1770 – nu for Greek “no” in Kavalliotis's word list.^[14]
• 1894 – nu “not” in Weigand's glossary.^[6]
• 1901 – nu, the adverb of negation, in Mihăileanu's dictionary.^[17]
• 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin nōn.^[2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. not.^[1][17][4]
2. (as an answer) no.^[1][15]
3. (in questions) with an affirmative sense.^[4][5]

Related words

• Romanian nu

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 130
3. ^ a b Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 354
4. ^ a b c d e Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 914
5. ^ a b c Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 664
6. ^ a b Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 321
7. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 208
9. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ 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
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b 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. 92
15. ^ a b Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 762
16. ^ Марковиќ, Марјан (2007), Ароманскиот и македонскиот говор од охридско-струшкиот регион (во балкански контекст), Скопје, p. 121
17. ^ a b Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 386