Etymologically
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tru

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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]
  • 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