PRIETEN · PRIJATELЬ · DRUGЪ

Prietenul: the one who wishes you well

Prieten comes from Slavic prijatelь — “the one who wishes you well”, from prijati “to be well-disposed” + -telь. Slavic had a whole scale, drugъ–prijatelь–prijaznь; Romanian kept a single rung, attested since 1642. And the whole scale is written in dictionaries.

Climb the scale

3 rungs: drugъ · prijatelь · prijaznь, the Slavic scale
1642: “fă priiaten pre Domnul”: the first firm-date attestation
0×: prijatelь is missing from the Gospels: drugъ stands there

Three pictures, one rung:

Marianus, David and Jonathan, Varlaam: three ways of seeing one friend.

Scale
Years
Cousins
Witnesses
The tally
Three dates
Dispute
Game
Sources

The page machine

The scale, rung by rung

Seven rungs, three languages. Press each piece: see which language it comes from and which dictionary holds it. The RO/LA/SL labels show the language; the agent suffix -telь is the scale itself.

prieten today's Romanian RO

DEX '09: “– Din sl. prijatelĩ” — with Slavic ĩ. Plural prieteni, feminine prietenă. (DEX)

amic the neologism RO

DER: “Lat. amicus, 19th c.” — brought in with re-Latinization; it never pushed the Slavic loan out. Prieten stays. (DER)

prijatelь Old Slavic SL

SJS, III, p. 331: “přítel, друг, приятель, Freund: — φίλος; amicus” — Euchologium, Rila. (SJS)

prijati to be well-disposed SL

Derksen: “*prijati v. 'please, favour'” — the verb the friend comes from, not “to take”. (Derksen)

drugъ the Gospels' friend SL

SJS: “přítel, druh… — φίλος, ἑταῖρος; amicus, socius” — Jn 15: “vy druzi moi este”. (SJS)

amicus Latin LA

The SJS gloss for prijatelь; translations map the continuants onto amicus, the friend in Latin. (SJS)

proximus the neighbour LA

Dosoftei, Ps 14: renders proximo as “prietin” — “Ș-a prietin scădere / Nu va face-ntr-avere”. (Dosoftei)

pri-jęti does NOT enter the scale: “to take to oneself” is the trap homograph (приꙗти “to be well-disposed” vs приѩти “to receive”, with the nasal) — it stands in the dispute, with Vasmer's verdict beside it.

At home

Silence, then the flood: 1642–1673

The 16th century is silent — Scheiana lacks the word; from 1642, prieten flows: teachings, sermon books, law codes, psalms, chronicles.

Silence: Scheiana, zero

The Scheiană Psalter (ms. c. 1482) has no prieten: Ps 37 “Soții miei și vecinii miei… și apropiații miei”. Neither does Gaster, pp. 1–67 (Coresi, Palia). (Scheiană)

1642: the firm date

Melhisedec, Teachings, Câmpulung: “dă săracilor și fă priiaten pre Domnul”. The oldest attestation with a year on it. (Gaster I, 96)

1643–1673: the flood

Varlaam: “priiatni de priiatni”; Meletie 1644: “…nu a iubi numai prietenii tăi”; the 1652 Pravila: “priiatenii, vecinii… cu arme”; Dosoftei 1673: five psalms; Costin: “Priiateni pre nimini n-are”. (Gaster)

The old triplet and the rivals

Varlaam, Dosoftei and the Pravila set them side by side, not against each other: “priiatni de priiatni. Și soț de soț”. The rivals never formed a stable pair: amic (Lat., 19th c.), tovarăș (Ukr./Russ.), ortac (Serbo-Cr. ortak, reg.), soț–tovarăș (pop.). (DEX)

Forms: from priiaten to pretin

Gaster II, 509: priiaten, priiatin, prietin, priaten, prieteșug… Mold. prietin, Trans. pretin, Olt. preten; the feminine prietenă is a Romanian derivation. (Gaster, DER)

Joined hands on a Roman relief — Dextrarum iunctio, Rome: joined hands seal the bond. Photo: Agnete, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

DEX: prieten →

The same scale, other languages

Cousins: from drug to in-law

Eight cousins, one scale: Russian splits it in two, Ukrainian holds it paired, Serbian stretches it to the in-law.

East: друг against приятель

Ozhegov: друг is “связан… дружбой”, приятель is “близкий… знакомый” — the bond against the acquaintance. Ushakov ranks друг above приятель, with дружба beside it. Kataev: “Приятелей… много, а настоящих друзей всего один”. (Ozhegov, Ushakov)

West: Czechs, Slovaks, Poles

Czech přítel, a trusted “kamarád” (SSJČ); Slovak priateľ, “v núdzi poznáš” (KSSJ); Polish przyjaciel, between “stosunki serdeczne” and the euphemism “kochanek” (PWN). The middle of the scale, three ways. (SSJČ, PWN)

South: Bulgarians and Serbs

Bg. приятел: “близост, обич и доверие” (RBE). Sr./Cr. prijatelj: HJP also gives the ethnological sense — “otac jednoga od bračnih drugova prema ocu drugoga”: the friend as in-law. A single citation. (HJP)

Leakage toward kinship

Old Czech: pl. přátelé = “relatives” (SSJČ); Banat c. 1700: “Consaguineus. Pretien” (Lex. Mars.); MDA2: (Trs) “rudă”. At the edges, the friend leaks toward kin. (SSJČ, DLRLV)

The allegory of friendship, Hoefnagel — Hoefnagel, the allegory of friendship: two people, one good deed. Photo: Joris Hoefnagel, Wikimedia Commons, public domain

HJP: prijatelj (mirror) →

Who heard the friendship

Four witnesses

From DEX to SJS and Rejzek: four dictionaries, each hearing one rung.

DEX: prieten

“PRIETEN, -Ă … Persoană de care cineva este legat printr-o afecțiune deosebită… – Din sl. prijatelĩ.”

The explanatory dictionary, s.v. prieten

The Romanian sheet: definition + Slavic ĩ. The most cited seal.

DER: the final consonant

“Sl. prijateli… Alterarea consoanei finale… se datorează mai curînd unei confuzii cu sl. prijętinŭ “plăcut”.”

Ciorănescu, DER, s.v. prieten

The etymological verdict: the -n comes from “plăcut”, not from ieftin.

SJS: ПРИꙖТЕЛЬ

“přítel, друг, приятель, Freund: — φίλος; amicus, susceptor (Euch 80b, 65a; Ryl 2b; Const 11…)”

SJS, III, p. 331

Old Slavic with documents: Euchologium, Rila, Constantine. The heaviest sheet.

Rejzek: the well-wisher

“Psl. *prijatelь … “kdo přeje dobro, kdo má rád” — from *prijati + -telь.”

Rejzek, Czech etymological dictionary

The definition as derivation: the friend is “the one who wishes you well”.

SJS, vol. III (scan) →

Where we stand

What we know and what we reconstruct

Four drawers for the whole page: the scale, the stars, why it holds, and what stays open.

What we know

prieten ← prijatelь (SJS, Euch./Rila) ← prijati “to be well-disposed” + -telь; drug above приятель (Ushakov); Romanian attests from 1642, with the prieten–soț–vecin triplet.

What we reconstruct

*prijatelь, *prijati, PIE *priH- “to love, hold dear” — Skt priyá- “dear”, Goth frijōnds “friend”, Eng. friend. Starred forms, not documented ones.

Why it holds

DEX + DER + SJS + Vasmer + Derksen + Rejzek tell one family; the 19th-century amic never pushed the Slavic loan out (Jakubowicz after Boryś); the Gospels keep drugъ apart.

What stays open

“At: PSALT, 181” — which psalter?; the feminine prietenă — first attested when?; the 16th century — a hole; the plural stress — unmarked.

Three stops

Three dates

The whole road on one rail: the firm date, the psalms, the allies.

Melhisedec
1642
Câmpulung, Teachings: “fă priiaten pre Domnul” — the friend with a year on it, for the first time.
stop at 1 of 3
Dosoftei
1673
Uniev, the Psalter in verse: five psalms with prietin; Ps 14 renders proximo — the neighbour becomes the friend.
stop at 2 of 3
Neculce
1733–43
Chronicle (ms. c. 1733–1743): “muntenii sunt prieteni cu moscalii”; “prieten lui Costantin-vodă și dușman lui Mihai-vodă” — allies, not pals.
stop at 3 of 3

1643 Varlaam · 1644 Meletie · 1652 Pravila · c. 1670 Costin · 1879 Cihac.

The road of the friend

prijati
to be well-disposed, in Slavic
prijatelь
the one who wishes well
prieten
the friend, at home

Where the scale tangles

Three question marks, no winner

The scale is solid — the homographs are not. The page verdict: DISPUTED

To take or to wish well?

“pri-jęti, the one taken to oneself” sounds good, but no dictionary says it: Vasmer explicitly separates приятный (from jęti, “to take”) from the prijati family. The trap sits in the homographs: приꙗти “to be well-disposed” vs приѩти “to receive”. A verdict with the source beside it: the prijati family.

prijaznь: mother or sister?

Rejzek: *prijaznь “is derived from *prijati” — the sister of *prijatelь, not the mother. Affection does not give birth to the friend; both come out of goodwill. (Rejzek, Vasmer)

Where is the 16th-century prieten?

Scheiana: zero. Gaster, pp. 1–67 (Coresi, Palia): zero. MDA2 says “At: PSALT, 181” — the siglum undeciphered, the psalter unknown. The hole stays visible.

No disputed rung gets a single uncited truth on this page: the mechanisms stand with their source beside them, and the homographs stay on the table.

What is NOT disputed: prieten ← prijatelь ← prijati + -telь; the Gospels' drugъ; the years 1642–1673 — on these all sources agree.

Vasmer: the split (mirror) →

Test yourself

Who is closer?

Six rungs of friendship, shuffled. Set them from the most intimate to the most estranged.

Move each card to its place, 1 to 6. Keys 1–6 move the chosen card; cards also drag by finger.

3
prieten — affection on trust (DEX)
Place
1
drugъ — the Gospels' word for φίλος
Place
6
neprieten — the opposite: enemy (DER)
Place
2
prijatelь — the one who wishes you well (SJS)
Place
5
tovarăș — bound by a common cause (DEX)
Place
4
amic — the friend from Latin, 19th c. (DER)
Place

Score: 0 of 6

The right order, most intimate first:

1 — drugъ — the Gospels' word for φίλος
2 — prijatelь — the one who wishes you well (SJS)
3 — prieten — affection on trust (DEX)
4 — amic — the friend from Latin, 19th c. (DER)
5 — tovarăș — bound by a common cause (DEX)
6 — neprieten — the opposite: enemy (DER)

The settled row: drug is the bond itself (дружба), prijatelь the well-wisher, prieten our rung, amic less personal (Wiktionary), tovarăș of the cause, neprieten the opposite.

Sources

First the Slavic scale, then the Romanian dictionaries and the cousins; the neighbours last. Every risky claim points at its source.