împlânta

Forms

împlânta (third-person singular present împlântă, past participle împlântat, third-person subjunctive împlânte), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin implantō (“to plant in, set in”) according to DEX, NODEX and MDA2, which marks the Latin form as reconstructed.^[2][3][4] Ciorănescu, Tiktin and the DA start instead from the simple verb plantō (“to plant”), with the Romanian prefix în- added to it.^[5][6][7] Pușcariu and Candrea–Densusianu give the same Latin verb.^[5] The REW lists the Romanian word among the compounds of that Latin verb, beside Italian impiantare.^[8]

The verb survives south of the Danube: Aromanian plãntu and Megleno-Romanian plăntu.^[5][9][10] Its Romance cognates include Italian piantare, French planter, Spanish plantar and Portuguese prantar.^[5] The neologism implanta is a doublet of the same Latin verb.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to the 16th-century Psaltirea Scheiană, where the verb renders Slavonic “to plant”: „Cela ce împlântă urechia, nu auzi-va?” “He that planted the ear, shall he not hear?” (Psalm 93:9).^[6] The same verse already has împlîntă in Coresi's Psalter of 1570.^[11] MDA2 gives Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686) as its first record.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “to plant” is now obsolete;^[6][4] Tiktin finds it only occasionally in the 19th century.^[6][4] From planting came the senses “to stick into the ground” and “to thrust in”: Varlaam's homily book describes iron spikes driven into the ground, and Dosoftei a sword thrust into a saint's breast.^[6] Conachi already uses it of the eyes: „împlântându-mi ochii în întuneric” “boring my gaze into the dark”.^[6]

MDA2 records several narrower or figurative uses: to bury vegetables in sand to keep them, to fix or rivet, to dip into a liquid, and, reflexively, to sink into debt or to be overwhelmed.^[4] DEX keeps “to stick, thrust in” as the main sense, with “to fix, set” as rare.^[2] The abstract noun împlântare “planting, setting” appears in a calendar of 1814.^[7]

Timeline

• 1570 – împlîntă “planted” in Coresi's Psalter.^[11]
• 16th century – the same verse in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[6]
• 1682–1686 – Dosoftei's lives of the saints, MDA2's first record.^[4][6]
• 1814 – the noun împlântare in a calendar.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To thrust or stick something pointed into something; to be driven in: Și-a împlântat lopata în zăpadă.^[2][3][1]
2. (transitive, rare) To fix, set firmly in place.^[2][4]
3. (transitive, obsolete) To plant.^[4][6][1]
4. (transitive, figurative) To fix the eyes on something; to dip into a liquid.^[4][1]
5. (reflexive, figurative) To sink deep, as into debt.^[4]

Word family

• împlântare
• împlântat

Related words

• implanta
• plântă
• Aromanian plãntu

Usage notes

In slang the third person împlântă is used jokingly for se întâmplă “it happens”.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 534
3. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. împlânta
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1192
5. ^ a b c d 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. împlînta
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. împlânta
7. ^ 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. împlânta
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. plantāre
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 867
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 225
11. ^ a b 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 93:9
12. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. împlânta