înconjura

Forms

înconjura (third-person singular present înconjoară, past participle înconjurat, third-person subjunctive înconjoare) 1st conjugation^[1] The old form încungiura: „Încungiur altariul tău, Doamne” “I go round your altar, Lord” (Coresi's psalter, Psalm 25:6).^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian în- + conjura, the second part being an old verb meaning “to go round”, recorded in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3][4] That verb is from Latin congȳrō (“to make a circle about”), from con- and gȳrō (“to turn in a circle”).^[5][1][6] Ciorănescu, Pușcariu and Candrea and Densusianu derive the Romanian verb itself from the Latin one, and Wiktionary calls it inherited from it with the prefix added.^[7][1]

Ciorănescu takes the variant încunjura for the regular result, and explains the standard form as a dissimilation, comparing jur and împrejur.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), at Acts 28:13, in the sense “to go round”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From going round a place the verb came to mean surrounding, and in war besieging: Ureche writes that Petru Vodă „au încongiurat pre Alexandru Vodă în curte în Iași” “surrounded Prince Alexandru in his court at Iași”.^[2] It also came to mean going round an obstacle, taking a roundabout way and, figuratively, avoiding someone or treating someone with tact.^[3][7] Folk speech has „Unde-l văd, nu-l încunjor” “where I see him, I don't step out of his way”, and the proverb Golătatea înconjură, foamea dă de-a dreptul “nakedness goes round, hunger goes straight in”: lack of clothing is easier to bear than hunger.^[2] The reflexive means to gather people around oneself.^[4][3]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[3][2]
• c. 1573–1578 – the simple verb conjura “to go round” in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[5]
• 1688 – încunjura some eighteen times in the Bucharest Bible.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To go round a thing or a place; to circumambulate.^[4][3][1]
2. To be placed all around someone or something, to surround; to encircle with armed forces, to besiege.^[4][1]
3. (reflexive) To gather people around oneself; to live in someone's company.^[4][3]
4. To fence in; to enclose in a circle, to draw a line around.^[4]
5. To reach a goal by a roundabout way.^[4]
6. (figurative) To avoid someone or something;^[3][7] (popular) to approach someone tactfully.^[3][7]

Word family

• înconjurător
• înconjurime
• înconjur
• înconjurare
• înconjurătură

Related words

• jur
• împrejur

Usage notes

The present is înconjur or, regionally, înconjor; the variant încunjura is still in use.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. înconjurá
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1213
4. ^ 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. 541
5. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 487
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. congȳro
7. ^ a b c d e 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. înconjura
8. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Deut 2:3