împrumut

Forms

împrumut n (plural împrumuturi)^[1] An old feminine variant împrumută occurs in the chronicles: „Împrumuta ce au luat ... de la boieri” “the loan that he took from the boyars”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin in prōmūtuum (“as an advance, on loan”), a phrase built on prōmūtuum (“an advance of money, a loan”).^[4][3][5][2] MDA2 marks the phrase as reconstructed.^[3] The Latin noun is formed from prō- (“in advance”) and mūtuum (“a loan”), the neuter of mūtuus (“mutual, exchanged”).^[6]

Ciorănescu takes the adverbial use “on loan” as the older one, with the ⟨în-⟩ usual in adverbs such as împrejur and împreună, and the noun as formed from that adverb.^[7] The DA derives the old variant împrumută from the Latin plural prōmūtua.^[5][7] Wiktionary treats the noun instead as formed on the verb împrumuta.^[1] The Aromanian equivalent is mprumut.^[8][9] The verb French emprunter goes back to the same Latin family.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the compound împrumut-deatorul “the lender” in the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578), Psalm 108:11: „Să ispitească împrumut-deatorul toate câte-s ale lui” “let the lender seize all that he has”.^[5][3][2] In the old texts the word is chiefly an adverb, in a da împrumut “to lend” and a lua împrumut “to borrow”.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The adverb meant “on condition of giving it back”; used with de (de împrumut) it also meant “belonging to someone else”, and figuratively “imitated”, after French d'emprunt.^[5] The noun names the act of lending or borrowing and the thing or sum lent, and in law and finance the state loan raised by issuing bonds.^[4][3] In linguistics it is a word or construction taken from another language.^[4][3] In Muntenia and Oltenia the adverb împrumut also means “helping one another” in farm work.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – împrumut-deatorul “the lender” in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[5][3]
• 1746 – Dă-mi împrumut trei pâini “lend me three loaves” in a Gospel book (Luke 11:5).^[2]
• 1825 – the noun imprumutu “loan, lending, borrowing” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[11]
• 1870 – Costinescu defines the noun as the act of lending or borrowing and the sum lent.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A loan: the act of lending or borrowing; concretely, an object or sum of money lent: de împrumut “borrowed”, a da (a lua) cu împrumut “to lend (to borrow)”.^[4][1]
2. împrumut de stat: a government loan, raised by issuing bonds; such a bond.^[3]
3. (linguistics) A loanword or construction taken from another language: împrumut lingvistic.^[4][3]

Related words

• împrumuta
• Aromanian mprumut
• Latin prōmūtuum

Usage notes

A fi (sau a părea) ca de împrumut, said of clothes, means “not to suit someone”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. împrumút
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1197
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 535
5. ^ 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. împrumut
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b 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. împrumut
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 672
9. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională
10. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. s.v. împrumut
11. ^ 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. 284
12. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 573