îndemna

Forms

îndemna (third-person singular present îndeamnă, past participle îndemnat, third-person subjunctive îndemne), first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is usually explained as inherited from Vulgar Latin *indemināre “to drive away”, from inde (“from there”) and minō (“to drive (animals)”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Pușcariu, the REW, Tiktin, the DA, Candrea and Scriban hold this view.^[6] The REW notes that the compound must already be Latin, since this Latin adverb does not survive as a prefix in Romanian.^[5] Tiktin gives Latin dēminō or the compound above, “to drive away”.^[7] The word has a counterpart in Aromanian, Aromanian îndemn.^[6]

Ciorănescu calls the origin uncertain.^[6] The Latin form fits the meaning, but he finds the loss of the /i/ hard to accept, since a present ⟨*îndemân⟩ would be expected, compare îndemâna.^[6] Lambrior held that the verb is only a variant of that one, which Ciorănescu also doubts.^[6] If the old senses “to invite” and “to oblige” are the original ones, he suggests Latin dignor (“to deem worthy”), with the regular change seen in signum > semn and a later causative prefix în-.^[6] Wiktionary calls the origin unknown.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578), at Psalm 69:1.^[7] Coresi's homilies of 1581 have it in the sense “to urge”: „Îndemnă Hristos ucenicii să între” “Christ urged the disciples to go in”.^[4][2] Mardarie's lexicon of 1649 gives îndemn for Slavonic verbs meaning “to instigate, to instruct”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the word meant “to invite” and “to oblige, to cause”, senses now obsolete.^[6][2] The core sense “to urge, to spur” goes from people to animals: one urges a person to act, and urges a horse or oxen on.^[3][2] In Creangă's tales the drivers shout to the animals îndemnați înainte! “pull on!”.^[9][10]

The reflexive a se îndemna means “to bring oneself to do something, to decide”, as in Neculce's account of how Prince Alexandru decided to build the Slatina monastery.^[7][4] Regional senses include “to set out” in Maramureș, and “to feel drawn to” and “to get used to” elsewhere.^[11][2] Wiktionary lists Ukrainian демнати (demnaty) as a descendant.^[1]

The derivatives are îndemn “urging, incentive”, a noun formed from the verb, îndemnător “stimulating” and the old îndemnătură “spur”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – the first record, in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[7]
• 1581 – îndemnă “he urged” in Coresi's homilies.^[4][2]
• 1589 – îndeamnă in Coresi's Slavonic–Romanian psalter.^[12]
• 1649 – îndemn in Mardarie's lexicon.^[8]
• 1688 – îndemnă in the Gospel of Matthew in the Bucharest Bible.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To persuade someone to do something, to urge, encourage or invite to an action.^[3][2][13]
2. (reflexive) To set about something after being urged, to decide on it.^[3][2]
3. (reflexive reciprocal, figurative) To vie with one another, spurring each other on.^[3][2]
4. (transitive) To make an animal start or go faster, to spur on.^[3][2]
5. (intransitive, regional, of draught animals) To pull hard, to press on.^[3][2]
6. (intransitive, regional, Maramureș) To set out on the road.^[11]

Word family

• îndemn
• îndemnătură
• îndemnător

Related words

• mâna
• Latin minō

Usage notes

The present is îndemn, in old texts also îndemnez.^[2][7] The verb usually takes a subjunctive, an infinitive or la with a noun: îndemnat la lucru “urged to work”.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1220
3. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 544
4. ^ 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. îndemna
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4371
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. îndemna
7. ^ 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. îndemna
8. ^ a b 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. îndemn
9. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. îndemna
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 320
11. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. îndemna
12. ^ 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 26:17
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. îndemna
14. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 617