tru

Forms

tru^[1]

• Wiktionary gives ntru as an alternative form.^[1]
• Other spellings: TRU in Papahagi's dictionary;^[2] tru in Mihăileanu's and Dalametra's dictionaries;^[3][4] tru in Daniil's Tetraglosson, as Leake printed it.^[5]
• Pascu lists the shorter tu beside it,^[6] and Bara gives both tu and tru for "in, to".^[7] Cunia names ãn, n, tu and ntru as words of the same use.^[8]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin intrō (“inside, within”),^[2][6][1] a Latin adverb that later came to be used as a preposition.^[9] In Latin, intrō meant "inside, indoors", above all with verbs of motion;^[10] de Vaan lists it among the derivatives of inter (“between, among”), from Proto-Italic *nter (“between”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁(e)nter (“between”), beside *h₁(e)n-tero- (“situated within”).^[11]

The word is shared by the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian întru, Megleno-Romanian antru and Istro-Romanian ântru.^[12][13][14] Capidan also records Megleno-Romanian tru in Țârnareca.^[15] In Romanian, întru competed with în and lost ground to it;^[12] Ciorănescu notes that in Aromanian, on the contrary, the descendant of intrō displaced în entirely.^[12] Further west, the Latin word survives in Italian entro and Old Spanish entro (“until”).^[16][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest records are in Daniil of Moscopole's Tetraglosson, as Leake printed it: tru patire renders Greek εἰς τὸν λόγγον "into the thicket", and tru mintzi renders εἰς τὰ βουνὰ "to the mountains".^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the Latin sense "inside, within", the Aromanian preposition covers both place and motion: "in" and "into".^[2][17][3] Papahagi points to the same short form in a Moldavian document of 1627, să hie ei tru pace "may they be in peace".^[2] Papahagi's examples also show it meaning "on" a mountain, "almost to" a state (pãn' tru moarte "nearly to death"), "every" with a time word (tru an "each year"), "at" a moment, and "among" (un tru shapte feati "one among seven girls", in his notation).^[2]

Timeline

• 1794–1802 – tru “in, into” in Daniil of Moscopole's Tetraglosson.^[5]
• 1813 – recorded in Boiagi's grammar, as Pascu notes.^[6]
• 1894 – tru in Weigand's glossary, referred to tu.^[18]
• 1901 – tru “in, into” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.^[3]
• 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin intrō.^[6]

Meanings

Preposition

1. In, inside (place).^[17][2][1]
2. into (with verbs of motion).^[4][3]
3. on, upon (of a mountain).^[2]
4. Up to, nearly to (a state).^[2]
5. With a time word: at; every (tru an “each year”).^[2]
6. among.^[2]

Related words

• Romanian întru
• Megleno-Romanian antru
• Istro-Romanian ântru

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 1198
3. ^ a b c d Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 511
4. ^ a b Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 205
5. ^ a b c Leake, William Martin (1814), Researches in Greece, London (prints Daniil of Moscopole's Tetraglosson), p. 384
6. ^ 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, 172
7. ^ Bara, Mariana (2024), Dictsiunarlu ti cathi dzuuã, online at dixionline.net
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 1030
9. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
13. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
14. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
15. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română
16. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
17. ^ a b Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
18. ^ Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 333