închina

Forms

închina (third-person singular present închină, past participle închinat, third-person subjunctive închine), first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin inclīnō (“to bend, bow, incline”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is formed from in- and clīnō (“to bend”).^[1]

The verb survives in all four branches: Aromanian ncljin, also ncl'inare in the older spelling, and Megleno-Romanian anclʹin.^[2][5][6] Its Romance cognates are Italian inchinare, Old French encliner, Occitan enclinar and Catalan enclinar (“to greet”).^[2][4] The neologism înclina, from French incliner, is its doublet.^[2][1]

The religious senses “to worship, to cross oneself” are Romanian: the DA puts them down to the Eastern Church, since Ancient Greek κλίνω (klínō, “to bend”) and the Slavic verbs for “to bend” took the same path to “to worship, to greet, to bring as a gift”.^[7] Some of these senses occur in the Romance languages too, as Catalan “to greet”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), in the Acts of the Apostles (21:5), where the disciples kneel on the shore: the verb meant “to bend” (the knees).^[3][8][7] Coresi's psalter of 1570 already has the sense “to worship”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense “to bend, to lay down” is old: an old religious text says „n-am capul unde-mi închina” “I have nowhere to lay my head”.^[8][7] A închina steagul was to lower the flag in sign of surrender.^[10] Bowing became the gesture of greeting, of worship and of submission: a se închina meant to cross oneself and pray, to bow to someone, and, in the political language of the old principalities, to accept a sovereign's rule.^[7][11] A închina armele or steagul means to surrender.^[11]

From the gesture of homage came “to give, to dedicate”: Neculce tells how a prince au închinat mănăstirea Hangul to the Patriarchate of Alexandria, that is, made the monastery subject to it, and Eminescu mocks poets who dedicate their verses to the mighty.^[8] Raising one's glass to someone's health, a închina un pahar, is the toast.^[8][11] Regionally, a închina pruncul was to give a newborn an emergency baptism.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – first record, “to bend (the knees)”, in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3][8]
• 1570 – închine “let them worship” in Coresi's psalter.^[9]
• 1688 – the verb is frequent in the Bucharest Bible.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To worship, to show one's devotion to God in the rites of a religion; in the Christian church, to cross oneself; by extension, to pray.^[11][1]
2. (reflexive) To bow before someone, or bow the head, out of respect, devotion or as a greeting.^[11][3]
3. (intransitive) To raise a full glass to someone's health or in honour of an event; to toast.^[11][1]
4. (reflexive, dated) To accept a lord's suzerainty and become his vassal;^[11] a închina armele (or steagul) “to surrender”.^[11]
5. (transitive, dated) To give something as a sign of piety, submission or gratitude; to make an offering;^[11][2] a închina o mănăstire “to place a monastery under a foreign monastery or patriarchate”.^[11][2]
6. (transitive) To consecrate; to dedicate a work to someone.^[11][13]
7. To accept another person's point of view.^[11]

Word family

• înclinat
• închinător
• închinăcios
• închinătură
• închinăciune
• închinare

Related words

• înclina
• Aromanian ncljin
• Latin inclīnō

Usage notes

A se închina is the usual verb for crossing oneself and for worship (a se închina la icoane), while a închina with a glass is the toast.^[11][8] The doublet înclina keeps the literal sense “to tilt, to incline”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. închina
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1208
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4359
5. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 711
6. ^ 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, p. 1, 124
7. ^ a b c d e 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. închina
8. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. închiná
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 65:3
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. închina
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 540
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 27:29
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. închina