Etymologically
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vãrnu

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Forms

vãrnu[1]

  • Feminine vãrnã.[2] Cunia defines it under vãr, feminine vãrã, with the variants verun, vãrun and vrãn.[3]
  • Dative a vîrnúi “to anyone, to nobody”.[4]
  • Other spellings: VÎRNU and VĂ'RNU, feminine -nă, in Papahagi's dictionary;[4][5] vîrnu in Dalametra;[6] βἄρνου, feminine βἄρνὰ or βἄρα (vărnu, vărnă, vără), in Nikolaidis's Greek script;[7] Pascu heads it vîrnu and lists vărnu, verun (from Boiagi), vâr and vărru from his sources.[8]
  • Regional and older forms: vărnu “nobody” in the Ohrid–Struga area;[9] Capidan lists vărună, vărnu, the older văru and veru,[10] and notes that in some southern districts the feminine form serves for both genders.[11]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *vēreūnus (“truly one”) in Wiktionary's tentative derivation, a compound of vērē (“truly”) and ūnus (“one”);[1] Papahagi gives the same Latin compound.[4] Nikolaidis instead started from vel (“or”) with the numeral, and compared Italian veruno (“none”);[7] Wiktionary mentions this second derivation as uncertain.[1] Pascu reconstructs *velis-unus, comparing quīvīs (“anyone you like”) and quantusvīs (“as great as you like”).[8] The Latin adverb is formed from vērus (“true”),[12] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *wēro- and Proto-Indo-European *weh₁-ro- (“true”).[13]

Beside it stand Romanian vreun,[8][1] Megleno-Romanian vrin[14][15] and Istro-Romanian vro.[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pascu quotes the form verun and the derivative verunoară “ever” from Boiagi's grammar of 1813.[8]

Semantic evolution

In questions and conditions the word means "some, any; someone, anyone"; with a negation it means "no, nobody".[4][1][8] Papahagi quotes di n'i-l'eá vi'rnă oáïe ("if some sheep is taken from me") and nu-l daŭ a vîrnúi ("I don't give it to anyone").[4] In the Ohrid–Struga area Marković records it with the sense "nobody".[9] Pascu lists the derivatives vîrnăoară "ever; with a negation, never" and di vărnă oară "next year".[8]

Timeline

  • 1813 – verun in Boiagi's grammar, as cited by Pascu.[8]
  • 1906 – vîrnu “some; with a negation, no” in Dalametra's dictionary.[6]
  • 1909 – vărnu “someone; nobody” in Nikolaidis's dictionary.[7]
  • 1925 – Pascu reconstructs Latin *velis-unus.[8]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. Someone, anyone.[4][1][8]
  2. (with a negation) Nobody, no one.[4][1][9]

Adjective

  1. Some, any; with a negation, no.[1][6][5]
  • Romanian vreun

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. 1078
  3. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 1077
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1117
  5. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 1258
  6. ^ a b c Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 220
  7. ^ a b c Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 112
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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, 180
  9. ^ a b c Марковиќ, Марјан (2007), Ароманскиот и македонскиот говор од охридско-струшкиот регион (во балкански контекст), Скопје, p. 74
  10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1932), Aromânii: dialectul aromân. Studiu lingvistic, București: Academia Română (Academia Română, Studii și cercetări XX), p. 429
  11. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1932), Aromânii: dialectul aromân. Studiu lingvistic, București: Academia Română (Academia Română, Studii și cercetări XX), p. 538
  12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  14. ^ Candrea, I.-A. (1927–1937), Glosar megleno-romîn I–IV, Grai și suflet III: 175–209; IV: 381–413; VI: 163–193; VII: 194–233, p. 225
  15. ^ Papahagi, Pericle (1902), Megleno-românii: studiu etnografico-filologic I, București: Academia Română (with a glossary), p. 131
  16. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula