îmbi

Forms

îmbi m pl (plural only, feminine/neuter îmbe)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ambi (“both”), with the feminine ambae, the plural forms that took the place of Classical ambō.^[2][3][4][1] The word survives south of the Danube as Aromanian îmbi.^[2] Its Romance cognates include Italian ambi, Spanish ambos and Portuguese ambos.^[5]

Ciorănescu notes that the old word has been largely replaced by its learned doublet ambii, a neologism of the same Latin origin.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the feminine îmbe at Psalm 149:6 in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century; the Voroneț psalter of the 1550s has it in the same verse.^[6] Tiktin and MDA2 date the word from the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578), where it means “both”.^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

Tiktin finds the word in the old literary language of the 16th and 17th centuries, beside the more usual amândoi.^[7] The noun next to it usually takes the definite article, as in frații îmbi “both brothers” and îmbe părțile “both sides”, though Dosoftei often leaves it out (îmbe sulițe “both spears”).^[7][8] In Dosoftei de îmbe also merges into dimbe: dimbe părți “on both sides”.^[7][8]

The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 still lists it, with Latin ambo, uterque.^[9] Negruzzi used it in the 19th century (cu îmbe mâni “with both hands”), but modern dictionaries mark it as archaic.^[10][4]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – îmbe at Psalm 149:6 in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[6]
• c. 1551-1558 – îmbe in the same verse of the Voroneț psalter.^[6]
• c. 1573-1578 – îmbi in the Psaltirea Scheiană, the first record in MDA2 and Tiktin.^[3][7]
• 1825 – listed in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[9]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (archaic) both;^[4][1][2] DEX classes it as a collective numeral, feminine îmbe.^[4][1][2]

Related words

• amândoi
• ambii
• Aromanian îmbi
• Latin ambō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. îmbi
3. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1181
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 530
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 411
6. ^ a b c Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 149:6
7. ^ 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. îmbi
8. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 669
9. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 18
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 563