încheia

Forms

încheia (third-person singular present încheie, past participle încheiat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

DEX, MDA2 and Wiktionary take it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *inclāvāre (“to fasten with a nail; to lock”), a verb formed in Latin on clāvus (“nail”) or clāvis (“key”).^[2][3][1] Pușcariu and the REW derived it from the “nail” word, and the DA explains the oldest sense as “to drive in a nail, fix with a nail”, still alive in the carpenter's phrase for fitting rafters and beams together.^[4][5] Candrea and Densusianu also start from Latin, but hold that the Latin verb was remodelled after cheie “key”.^[6]

Ciorănescu disagrees: he takes the verb as a Romanian formation on the noun for “key”, with Tiktin and Scriban, or directly from Vulgar Latin *inclaviare, after Pascu, and judges the derivation from the Latin word for “nail” the less likely; he notes that Pușcariu himself later admitted a crossing with the noun.^[4][7] Wiktionary also sees the noun's influence.^[1]

The verb survives in Aromanian ncl'iare.^[4] Romance has related verbs in Friulian inclavâ, Italian inchiavare, French enclaver and Catalan enclavar.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, with the past forms încheiași and încheiară.^[8][9][7] MDA2's first record is later, Dosoftei's lives of the saints of 1682–1686.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The DA puts the joiner's sense first: to fit beams or rafters into one another, sometimes pinning them with a wooden nail; from it came “to join parts together” and, in the old language, “to articulate” of bones, so that încheietură means a joint.^[5][4] Fastening clothes with buttons or hooks, the commonest everyday sense, is recorded by Tiktin with 19th-century quotations.^[7][2]

The sense “to close, finish” led to “to conclude” a speech, an account or a treaty: a încheia pacea “to make peace”, a încheia un contract, a încheia un proces-verbal “to draw up minutes”.^[7][2][4] MDA2 records old senses now lost: “to build”, “to shape” and “to utter”.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – încheiași, încheiară in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[8][9]
• 1682–1686 – Dosoftei's lives of the saints, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1688 – încheietor “builder of wooden houses” in the Bucharest Bible.^[6][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To button or fasten a piece of clothing with buttons, hooks and the like;^[1] (reflexive) to button up one's clothes or tie one's laces.^[2][3]
2. (transitive) To fit together the parts of an object; to join.^[2][3]
3. (transitive) To finish or end an action or a piece of work; to draw a conclusion.^[2][1]
4. (reflexive, rare) To be limited to something.^[2]
5. (transitive) To conclude an agreement or a treaty; to draw up an official document.^[2][4]

Word family

• încheiere
• încheiat
• încheietor
• încheietoare
• încheietură
• descheia

Related words

• cheie
• cheotoare
• Aromanian ncl'iare

Usage notes

MDA2 gives the old regional variants închia and închie, and the Banat form cheia was noted by Weigand.^[3][6] The phrase a-și încheia zilele means “to end one's days”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 539
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1207
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. încheia
5. ^ 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. încheia
6. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 58
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. încheia
8. ^ 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 138:4
9. ^ 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 106:36