Etymologically
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nu

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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]
  • 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