Etymologically
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pot

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Forms

pot (third-person singular poati or poate, participle pututã)[1]

  • Second conjugation: aorist putui, imperfect puteam, participle pututã, infinitive puteari or puteare.[2][3]
  • Other spellings: potu in Wiktionary;[1] POT in Papahagi's dictionary;[4] pótu in Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;[5] Πότου in the Greek script of Kavalliotis's word list, which Meyer reads potu;[6] πότου in Nikolaidis, transcribed potu.[7]
  • Regional forms: pótu in the dialect of Metsovo.[8] Pascu lists the long infinitive puteare and Mihăileanu's amputeare.[9]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *poteō (“to be able”),[10][1] a regularised form of Latin possum (“I can”) that replaced the classical verb.[4][9][11] DÉRom reconstructs the verb for Proto-Romance with the sense "to be able", and dates the first Aromanian record to about 1760.[12]

The verb is common to Eastern Romance: Romanian pot, Megleno-Romanian pot and Istro-Romanian putę.[13][10][12] Its western cognates include Italian potere, French pouvoir and Spanish poder.[11][12]

The sense "to overcome, defeat" is also found in Romanian;[4][12] Papahagi compared potior (“to take possession of”), but DÉRom reconstructs the sense for a later layer of Proto-Romance, from Romanian and the Italo-Western languages, and finds a calque on potior less likely.[4][12]

Possum is a compound of potis (“able”) and sum (“I am”).[14] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *poti- (“master, in control of”), from Proto-Indo-European *pót-i- (“master, lord”).[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Kavalliotis's word list of 1770, where Πότου translates Modern Greek ἠμπορῶ (imporó, “I can”).[6]

Semantic evolution

The verb means "to be able, can".[16][4] In the negative it also means "to be ill": nu-n'i pot "I am ill".[4][17][16] It also means "to overcome, defeat", as in va l'-u poată "he will defeat him".[18][4][12] Pascu's derivatives include the adverb poate "perhaps" and the noun puteare "power".[9]

Timeline

  • 1770 – Πότου “I can” in Kavalliotis's word list.[6]
  • 1894 – pot “I can”, with nu pots “you are ill”, in Weigand's glossary.[17]
  • 1901 – pótu in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To be able, can.[1][16][4]
  2. (negative) To be ill.[16][4][17]
  3. To overcome, defeat.[16][4][18]
  • Romanian putea

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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. 846
  3. ^ Κατσάνης, Νικόλαος; Ντίνας, Κωνσταντίνος (1990), Γραμματική της κοινής κουτσοβλαχικής, Θεσσαλονίκη: Αρχείο Κουτσοβλαχικών Μελετών, p. 140
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 1003
  5. ^ a b Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 423
  6. ^ a b c 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. 53
  7. ^ Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 437
  8. ^ Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
  9. ^ 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, 149
  10. ^ a b Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 229
  11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  12. ^ a b c d e f Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
  13. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
  14. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  16. ^ 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)
  17. ^ a b c Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 325
  18. ^ a b Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 683