Several hypotheses exist; one most often proposed isVulgar Latin*arrēctāre (whence also Portuguesearreitar and Neapolitanarrezzà/arrizzà), fromLatinrēctus(“straight”), but the phonetic evolution would be irregular in this case; another possibility is Latinratāre,[1] as a frequentative ofreor(“consider”) (past participleratus), or from a Vulgar Latinēlatāre, as a frequentative ofefferō(“bring out or forth; produce, yield; emit”) (past participleēlātus). One theory suggests it is the result of the convergence of three originally separate verbs: in addition toēlatāre producing the standard formarăta, Latin*elitāre (fromlitō, litāre(“obtain or promise good omens”)) produces the mostly regional or archaic variant formareta and*arreptāre (fromarreptus, past participle ofarripiō(“seize; procure, appropriate”)) produces the obsoletearreta;[2] these verbs then gradually merged together phonetically. Other etymologies link a Vulgar Latin*arreptāre instead to a contraction ofad-reputāre, but this is less likely.
a arăta (third-person singular presentarată,past participlearătat,third-person subjunctivearate) 1st conjugation
| infinitive | aarăta | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gerund | arătând | ||||||
| past participle | arătat | ||||||
| number | singular | plural | |||||
| person | 1st person | 2nd person | 3rd person | 1st person | 2nd person | 3rd person | |
| indicative | eu | tu | el/ea | noi | voi | ei/ele | |
| present | arăt | arăți | arată | arătăm | arătați | arată | |
| imperfect | arătam | arătai | arăta | arătam | arătați | arătau | |
| simple perfect | arătai | arătași | arătă | arătarăm | arătarăți | arătară | |
| pluperfect | arătasem | arătaseși | arătase | arătaserăm | arătaserăți | arătaseră | |
| subjunctive | eu | tu | el/ea | noi | voi | ei/ele | |
| present | săarăt | săarăți | săarate | săarătăm | săarătați | săarate | |
| imperative | — | tu | — | — | voi | — | |
| affirmative | arată | arătați | |||||
| negative | nuarăta | nuarătați | |||||