# When «rost» meant mouth — 19 words from the Scheian Psalter

> The Markdown equivalent of https://mariuscomper.uk/psaltirea-scheiana/en/
> — same thesis, same evidence, same limits. Ediția română:
> https://mariuscomper.uk/psaltirea-scheiana/

## In short, in one minute

Manuscript 449 of the Romanian Academy Library holds the Scheian
Psalter, one of the oldest copies of the Psalms in Romanian: a
translation from Slavonic, three scribal hands, edited by Bianu in 1889
and comparatively by Candrea in 1916. Its vocabulary shows three fates:
shifted senses («codru» meant mountain, «rost» meant mouth), senses lost
through competition («ciudesă» lost to «minune»), and searches with no
result, recorded as findings («chiar», «cîștiga», «răposa»).

## I · Why the Scheian

Bianu 1889: volume I, facsimile and transcription, with the variants
from Coresi (1577). In the preface, the proposed dating: «la anul 1482
saŭ la 1485». Candrea 1916: comparative re-edition; his pagination is
the ruler for every card. The question is plain: what did the words mean
then, and what do they mean now? 19 cards, each with its attestation
badge.

## II · How to read a shift in meaning

Badges: Attested (form and sense attested, with the Candrea page),
Inflected forms (only inflected forms), Family (derivatives or kin), Not
found (search with no result). «With no modern heir» = the old word has
nothing to show today. Rhotacism: intervocalic n > r, e.g. inremă =
inimă, heart (42 occurrences). Today's scholars (Camară, Felea,
Munteanu) trace a single primitive, passed down through revisions; the
three hands belong to copyists.

## III · Lost Latin, remaining Slavonic

Chiar (CLARUS, «clear» → adverb; not found, preface only; in Coresi,
eggs «mai chiar»). Răposa («to rest» → neologism «to die»; not found;
Coresi: «dă lor răpaos și odihnă»). Lume (MUNDUS pp. 60, 328, 500 +
rare LUMEN calqued on světъ; «ca lumea ochiului»). No consensus on
Latin vs Slavonic; we do not decide.

## IV · Strayed metaphors

Cumplit (attested, pp. 276, 124, 64: «fulfilled» → «dreadful»; «Zilele
se cumplu»; the «om cumplit de rău» hypothesis). Greață (not found,
Voroneț only: «weight» → «disgust»; «greața valurilor»). Rost (inflected
forms, pp. 40, 53, 93: «mouth» → «purpose»; ROSTRUM = «beak»; Coresi:
«deschide-voi rostul meu»; «pe de rost» from «de rost» + «pre rost»; at
the loom, «the empty gap between heddles»). Cîștiga (not found: «to care
for» → «to obtain»; «cîștig pruncii» = «I see to the raising of the
children»).

## V · Mountain, hamlet, sheepfold

Codru (attested, pp. 88, 574, 866, 473, 983: «mountain» → «forest»;
QUODRUM = «lowland forest»). Mutare (attested, pp. 124, 883:
«settlement, village, sheepfold» → «change of place»; «În soare puse
mutarea sa»; at Rodna, a portable sheepfold). Fără-fund (attested,
pp. 497, 734: hell, abyss); beznă not found; bezdeno in Coresi, a form
deemed artificial.

## VI · Duels

Ciudesă (attested, 20×: «miracle» → with no modern heir) lost to minune
(attested, ~30×, p. 715). Bezaconie (attested, pp. 731, 879) lost to
fărădelege (attested, pp. 157, 256, 104, 232), the calque of Slavonic
bez+zákonŭ. Meser («poor», from MISER like Western misericordia, 96×)
lost an entire world: meserătate, a meseri, mesereze = mercy (MISERERE).
Its trace in «meserie», disputed among dictionaries (Scriban/DLRM: from
«meser»; Tiktin/CADE/DLR: from «meserere» + It./Fr. sense; DU:
«unknown»).
Cerca («to seek», five centuries), inremă (the rhotacism yardstick),
arină (regional), celariu (p. 527) are the survivors. Bonus: «mărit»
(MARITUS, Densușianu p. 107), a single citation.

## The word explorer

All 19 cards, with form, senses, etymon, evidence, scene and shift;
filters by badge and mechanism. DEX links at every card.

## Heard most often

meser 96×, inremă 42×, minune ~30×, ciudesă 20× (from our count).

## What did it mean then? (quiz)

rost = mouth; codru = mountain; cumplit = fulfilled; meser = poor;
mutare = settlement; ciudesă = miracle. Pages at each card.

## What is missing

Zero in the psalms: greață, beznă, chiar, cîștiga, răposa. Absence
proves nothing about what speakers knew — only that the translator never
used the words here. Dating: Bianu 1889 (1482 in the title; preface:
«1482 saŭ 1485»), Candrea 1916; exact dating debated, no definitive year.

## Sources on show

Bianu 1889 (ms. 449 of the Romanian Academy Library); Candrea 1916
(the cards' pagination); Camară, Felea, Munteanu (single primitive +
revisions); Coresi (bezdeno); Densușianu, Filologia romanică, the
lithographed course of 1932–1933 (each word's discussion, with the
pagination cited at every card); dexonline.ro (checks of 18 September
2026); the Bianu 1889 and Densușianu 1933 facsimiles, extracted locally
from the Dacoromanica scans.