împăna

Forms

împăna (third-person singular present împănează, past participle împănat), first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

Ciorănescu and Tiktin treat it as a formation from Romanian în- + pană (“feather; wedge”), whose senses follow those of the noun: “feather”, “strip of bacon”, “plume of feathers” and “wedge”.^[2][3] The noun goes back to Latin pinna (“feather”).^[2]

Candrea–Densusianu and the DAR instead take the verb from Vulgar Latin *impinnō (“to feather”); the DA gives this or *impennō, or a derivative of the noun.^[2][4] DEX 2009 and Wiktionary leave both explanations open, and MDA2 gives only the Latin one.^[5][1][6] Candrea–Densusianu compare Italian impennare, Sardinian impinnare, French empenner and Occitan empenar.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1649, in Mardarie's lexicon, where Candrea–Densusianu read the form împena.^[3][7] MDA2's first record is Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică (1704), with an arrow fitted with eagle feathers: „de nu s-ar fi împănat săgeata cu penele vulturului” “had the arrow not been feathered with the eagle's feathers”.^[6][8]

Semantic evolution

The old senses belong to feathers: of birds, to grow feathers; of arrows, to be fitted with them; and to adorn with feathers or flowers.^[6][4][1] The cooking sense, to lard meat with bacon or garlic, goes with pană “strip of bacon”.^[3][9] From it came “to fill a place all over”: in a tale an emperor fills the whole palace with guards.^[3][5]

Alecsandri has the figurative “to pierce” with an arrow, and in slang the verb means to stab with a knife.^[10][9][11] In technical use it means to take up the play between parts by driving in wedges.^[5] MDA2 lists the old variant împena.^[6]

Timeline

• 1649 – împena in Mardarie's lexicon, the first record.^[3][7]
• 1704 – an arrow împănat with feathers in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[6][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lard: to put bits of bacon, garlic and the like into cuts in meat or vegetables: Bucătarul a împănat pulpa cu usturoi.^[5][12][1]
2. (figurative) To fill or cram a place all over.^[5][3]
3. (technical) To take up the play between parts by driving wedges between them.^[5][12]
4. (archaic) To fit with feathers;^[6][1] (reflexive, of birds) to grow feathers.^[6][1]
5. (slang) To stab with a knife.^[11]

Word family

• împănare

Related words

• pană

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. pană
3. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. împăna
4. ^ a b 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. împăna
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 532
6. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1188
7. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 1316
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. împăna
9. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 307
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 570
11. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. împăna
12. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. împăna