împreuna

Forms

împreuna (present împreunez, third-person singular împreunează, past participle împreunat), 1st conjugation^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Romanian împreună (“together”), the adverb made into a first-conjugation verb.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of the adverb, beside împreunător and împreunătură.^[5] Șăineanu described the word as a compound of ⟨în⟩, ⟨pre⟩ and ⟨un⟩.^[6]

The adverb is formed with în- on the older preună, itself made of pre and the feminine of un.^[2][3] Ciorănescu derives it from the numeral through the compound preună and compares Spanish en uno;^[5][1] Philippide proposed instead a Latin compound Vulgar Latin *in per una.^[5][1] A verb of the same make exists south of the Danube: Aromanian mpriunedz, formed on mpriunã (“together”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to the Codicele Voronețean of the 16th century, in the First Epistle of Peter.^[7] The old construction with the dative appears there in the sense “to join, to share in”: „împreunați-vă chinurelor lu Hristos” “share in the sufferings of Christ”.^[4] MDA2 dates its first record to Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the verb already covered most of its present range: to bring together and unite, to combine, to bind, and with the reflexive to gather in one place, as of armies that would not join up.^[4] It also meant to reconcile or to mix, and with the dative to become a partner or companion of someone.^[4] Tiktin quotes the Bible of 1688 for the construction with cătră: „Vai de ceia ce împreună casă cătră casă” “woe to those who join house to house” (Isaiah 5:8).^[7]

The verb and its forms are frequent in the 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons, from Mardarie's of 1649 on, and in the Bucharest Bible of 1688.^[8][9] Other senses are to marry, to couple, and of animals to mate.^[3][10] Mareș's glossary records the sense “to marry”.^[11] Older senses that MDA2 marks as obsolete are “to meet” and “to receive, welcome”.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1563-1583 – the Codicele Voronețean, with the dative: “to share in”, the first record.^[7][4]
• 1581 – Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[3]
• 1649 – the forms împreunez and împreunat in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[8]
• 1688 – about 25 occurrences in the Bucharest Bible, including împreună casă cătră casă (Isaiah 5:8).^[9][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To gather in one place; to unite, to join or combine: Și-a împreunat mâinile. “He clasped his hands.”^[2][3]
2. (transitive, rare) To bring together in oneself, to cumulate.^[2][3]
3. (reflexive reciprocal and transitive factitive) To have sexual intercourse or make have it; of animals, to mate.^[2][3]
4. (reflexive) To meet;^[3] (transitive and reflexive) to marry.^[3]
5. (obsolete) To receive, to welcome someone.^[3]

Word family

• împreunare
• împreunător
• împreunătură

Related words

• împreună
• preună
• un
• Aromanian mpriunedz

Usage notes

The standard present is împreunez; the regional împreun follows the pattern without the suffix.^[2][3] The verb is built with cu “with”; older texts also used a, către, în, întru, subt or the bare dative.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 535
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1196
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. împreuna
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. împreună
6. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 311
7. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. împreuna
8. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. împreuna
9. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Exodus 26:6
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. împreuna
11. ^ Mareș, Alexandru (coord.) (1994), Crestomația limbii române vechi, vol. I (1521–1639), București: Editura Academiei Române, p. 222