îmbătrâni

Forms

îmbătrâni (third-person singular present îmbătrânește, past participle îmbătrânit), 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian în- + bătrân, with the verbal ending of the fourth conjugation: “to make or become old”.^[2][3][4][1] The DA too describes it as a prefixed derivative.^[5] Ciorănescu and DELR list it in the family of bătrân.^[6][7] The adjective is from Latin veterānus (“old, veteran”).^[6]

A verb formed the same way survives south of the Danube: Aromanian mbitãrnescu, made from bitãrnu.^[8][9][1] The simple verb bătrâni has the same senses but is old or popular and rare.^[3][6][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Scheiană, copied about 1573–1578, in the verse of Psalm 36 where the psalmist says that he was young and has now grown old.^[3][4][5] DELR's first date is 1581, in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive sense, of living beings growing old, is the oldest; the causative sense, of cares and troubles making a person old, followed, and Tiktin quotes proverbs for both.^[4][5] Proverbs use it of a servant who keeps changing masters and of a woman's cunning that made the devil grow old.^[4][11] Already in the DA it is used, rarely and figuratively, of objects that wear out.^[5] Modern dictionaries add the technical sense of materials whose structure and properties change slowly over time, and MDA2 gives senses from industry for the deliberate ageing of metals and other products.^[2][3] The folk phrase a îmbătrâni în vatră is said of a girl who stays unmarried.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană, Psalm 36, the first record.^[3][4]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[7]
• 1688 – eleven times in the Bucharest Bible, among them Genesis 18:13.^[12]
• 1801 – in Klein's dictionary, glossed with Latin “to grow old”.^[13]
• 1829 – the derivative îmbătrânitor “ageing, making old”, in a poem by Bota.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To age, to grow old: of people, animals and plants.^[2][3][1]
2. (transitive) To make someone old before their time, through worry, grief and hardship.^[2][3]
3. (transitive) To make someone look older than they are: Barba îl îmbătrânește cu zece ani.^[2][14]
4. (intransitive, of materials) To change structure and properties slowly, to deteriorate; to wear out.^[2][3]
5. (transitive, technical) To give a material the look of something old, or to treat a metal by repeated changes of temperature so as to stabilise it.^[3]

Word family

• îmbătrânire
• îmbătrânit
• îmbătrânitor

Related words

• bătrânețe
• bătrân
• Aromanian mbitãrnescu

Usage notes

A îmbătrâni în vatră, literally “to grow old at the hearth”, means to remain an old maid.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 530
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1180
4. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. îmbătrâní
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. îmbătrâni
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), p. s.v. bătrîn
7. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. îmbătrâni
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 673
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 639
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 563
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. îmbătrîni
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 18:13
13. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 373
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. îmbătrâni