trã

Forms

trã^[1]

• Also tri, tã and ti;^[2] Papahagi enters TRÀ and TRÎ, with tri and tă.^[3][4]
• Other spellings: tră in Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;^[5] Tră in Papahagi's glossary to his folk tales, which explains ta as the same word without its r;^[6] tra in Weigand's glossary^[7] and in Daniil's Tetraglosson.^[8]
• Pascu lists tă, ntre, între, ndre, nträ, tre, trea and tri.^[9]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin inter (“between, among”) according to Pascu,^[9] and Ciorănescu and Pușcariu list the Aromanian word with the Romanian cognate of inter, Romanian între.^[10][11] Papahagi derives it from intrā (“within”), following Capidan,^[3][4] Candrea and Densusianu put it with the descendants of intrō (“inside”),^[12] and Wiktionary derives it from trāns (“across”).^[1] Capidan notes that it is not known whether the preposition and the conjunction tra have the same origin.^[13] For its uses Papahagi compares Modern Greek διά (diá, “for”), Albanian për (“for”) and Italian tra (“between, within”).^[4]

De Vaan traces inter to Proto-Italic *nter and Proto-Indo-European *h₁(e)nter (“between”).^[14] Besides Romanian între, its cognates are Megleno-Romanian antri and Istro-Romanian ăntre.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in Daniil of Moscopole's Tetraglosson, where tra ómnlu translates Greek διὰ τὸν ἄνθρωπον “for the man”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word is a preposition of purpose, “for”, and has taken on a wide range of uses: “of, to be” before a verbal noun, “as”, “towards”, “instead of”, and in time “after”.^{[3][4][15][6][13]} Papahagi quotes trî mult an'i! “many happy returns!”,^[4] and the folk tales have tră frică easte “it is to be feared” and tră puţină oară “after a little while”.^[6]

Timeline

• 1794–1802 – tra ómnlu “for the man” in Daniil's Tetraglosson, as printed by Leake in 1814.^[8]
• 1894 – tra in Weigand's glossary.^[7]
• 1901 – tră “for” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.^[5]
• 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin inter.^[9]

Meanings

Preposition

1. For: for the sake or use of; for the purpose of.^[15][3][5]
2. Of, to be (before a verbal noun).^[6][13]
3. As, in the role of.^[6]
4. Towards.^[4][15]
5. Instead of.^[4][15]
6. (of time) After.^[3][9][6]

Related words

• Romanian între

Usage notes

Cunia and Papahagi enter the conjunction tra separately: it is always followed by sã and means “in order to”.^[16][17] Capidan describes tra as mostly a conjunction and trã as only a preposition.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b 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. 1025
3. ^ a b c d e Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1044
4. ^ a b c d e f g Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1048
5. ^ a b c Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 508
6. ^ a b c d e f Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 717
7. ^ a b Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 333
8. ^ a b c Leake, William Martin (1814), Researches in Greece, London (prints Daniil of Moscopole's Tetraglosson), p. 384
9. ^ a b c d 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, 171
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. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 78
12. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
13. ^ a b c d Capidan, Theodor (1932), Aromânii: dialectul aromân. Studiu lingvistic, București: Academia Română (Academia Română, Studii și cercetări XX), p. 507
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 1022
17. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 1189