împunge

Forms

împunge (third-person singular present împunge, past participle împuns, third-person subjunctive împungă), 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin impungō (“to prick into”).^[2][3][4] MDA2 and Wiktionary mark it as reconstructed, while Candrea–Densusianu find it in a Latin glossary.^[4][1][5] Ciorănescu, Tiktin, Pușcariu and the REW start from the simple verb pungō (“to prick”), with the prefix în- added in Romanian; a variant punge without the prefix is rare.^[6][7][8] Candrea–Densusianu note that the old perfect ⟨împunș⟩ matches a late Latin perfect ⟨punxi⟩ in the Tironian notes, for classical ⟨pupugi⟩.^[5][7] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“to prick, punch”).^[1]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian pung.^[6] The Romance cognates include Italian pungere, Occitan ponher, French poindre, and the learned Spanish pungir and Portuguese pungir.^[6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is împungem “we shall push down” in Coresi's Psalter of 1570, at Psalm 43:7.^[10] Tiktin cites the Psaltirea Scheiană of the same decades.^[7] In the Codex Sturdzanus the soldiers pierce Christ's side: „Cu sulița mă împunseră în coaste.”^[7]

Semantic evolution

The verb is used of anything with a point: a needle, a weapon, a goad, an insect's sting, an animal's horns.^[11][4] The 1688 Bible uses it of a bull that gores a man.^[7] Figurative senses grew from “to prick”: to wound with words (Cuvintele cele bune ung, iar cele rele împung “good words soothe, bad ones sting”), to feel a sudden sharp pain, and, reflexively, to clash, of interests.^[11][7] Cantemir already uses it of the fox stung by a remark.^[7] Moldavian colloquial speech has a o împunge la fugă “to dash off”, and the idiom îl împunge orzul (literally “the barley pricks him”) means that someone is restless from too much comfort, like the German der Hafer sticht ihn.^[7][11][4]

Timeline

• 1570 – împungem in Coresi's Psalter.^[10]
• 16th century – the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[7]
• 1649 – împung and împuns in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – of a goring bull in the Bucharest Bible.^[7][13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To prick or stab with something pointed; to prick oneself.^[2][1]
2. (transitive) To goad an animal.^[2][1]
3. (transitive, figurative) To mock, jibe at someone.^[2][3]
4. (transitive) To butt or gore with the horns: Vaca l-a împuns pe copil.^[2][4]
5. (intransitive, colloquial) a o împunge la fugă: to take to one's heels.^[4][7]

Word family

• împungător
• împungăli
• împungere
• împunsătură

Related words

• Aromanian pung
• Latin pungō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 535
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. împunge
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1197
5. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 238
6. ^ 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. împunge
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. împunge
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6850
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. pùngere
10. ^ 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 43:7
11. ^ a b c 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. împunge
12. ^ 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. împung
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ex 21:28