încumeta

Forms

încumeta (third-person singular present încumetă, past participle încumetat, third-person subjunctive încumete); first conjugation.^[1] The variant încumete of the third conjugation is regional: Ispirescu has „și mă voi încumete” “and I shall venture”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Latin committō (“to join; to entrust, (reflexive) to venture”), according to DER, Tiktin, Candrea–Densusianu and the DA.^[4][2][5] The REW records the reflexive Latin sense “to dare” and an old Romanian cumete.^[6] Graur takes an archaic cumeta as the base, with the prefix added later;^[7][1] Wiktionary also reconstructs an inherited simple verb, later prefixed and moved to the first conjugation, the older ending surviving in regional încumete.^[7][1] MDA2 writes the etymon with the prefix in brackets, and DEX only compares the Latin verb.^[8][3] The Latin verb is formed con- + mittō (“to send”).^[1][9]

Its Romance cognates include Italian commettersi (“to expose oneself to danger”) and Spanish cometerse, with acometer beside them.^[6][4] The word is a doublet of comite, borrowed from French commettre.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1788, in Molnar's Romanian grammar;^[8] MDA2 gives Țichindeal's fables of 1814: „Nu se încumetă să saie asupra lui” “he did not dare to leap at him”.^[2][8][5]

Semantic evolution

The DA records the verb from Muntenia, Transylvania and Bukovina.^[5] Besides “to dare”, it was used with în or pe for “to trust in, to rely on”: Bălcescu writes that Báthory told his Székelys not to trust rashly in luck.^[5][2] Ispirescu's tales have the old participle încumes and the past încumesei.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1788 – Molnar's grammar, the first record.^[2]
• 1814 – Țichindeal's fables, the record MDA2 gives.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To dare, to venture: Nimeni nu s-a încumetat să treacă râul.^[3][8]
2. (reflexive, rare; with în) To rely on, to trust in something.^[3][1]

Related words

• comite

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. încumeta
3. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 543
4. ^ a b c d 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. încumeta
5. ^ a b c d 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. încumeta
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2086
7. ^ a b Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 63
8. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1218
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press