un

Forms

un (feminine unã or une)^[1]

• Feminine unã;^[2][1] Wiktionary also gives the feminine une.^[1] The articled forms are unlu and una;^[3] Papahagi notes that the word has no plural forms.^[3]
• Other spellings: UN, feminine únă, in Papahagi's dictionary;^[3] un, ună in Dalametra's dictionary;^[4] unu for the numeral in Wiktionary;^[1] and a Greek-script form in Kavalliotis's word list, which its editor reads as unu.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ūnus (“one”), with the feminine from ūna.^[3][1][6] De Vaan traces Latin ūnus, Old Latin oino, to Proto-Italic *oino- and Proto-Indo-European *Hoi-no- (“one”), the source also of Old Irish óen and Lithuanian víenas.^[7] Wiktionary writes the root *h₁óynos (“one, single”).^[1]

The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian un, Megleno-Romanian un and Istro-Romanian un.^[6][8][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian uno, Spanish uno, French un and Portuguese um.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Kavalliotis's Greek–Aromanian–Albanian word list of 1770, where it translates Modern Greek ένας (énas, “one”), in a form its editor Meyer reads as unu.^[5]

Semantic evolution

As in Latin, the word is first the numeral "one";^[3][2][1] Aromanian also uses it as the indefinite article "a, an" and as an indefinite pronoun "one, someone".^[3][2][1] Papahagi records set phrases such as un di un ("one after another") and di un un ("one by one"), and un și un ("every one of them", said of picked men).^[3] Cunia adds unã noaptea for one o'clock at night.^[2] Dalametra glosses it also as "single, unique".^[4]

Timeline

• 1770 – a form read as unu “one” in Kavalliotis's word list.^[5]
• 1906 – un, ună “one, single” in Dalametra's dictionary.^[4]
• 1963 – Papahagi derives it from Latin unus, una.^[10]

Meanings

Numeral

1. One.^[2][3]
2. Single, only.^[2][4]

Article

1. (indefinite) A, an.^[1][3]

Pronoun

1. One, someone.^[3][2]

Related words

• Romanian un

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 1059
3. ^ 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. 1235
4. ^ a b c d Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 211
5. ^ 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. 48
6. ^ 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)
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
9. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1084