îndesa

Forms

îndesa (third-person singular present îndeasă, past participle îndesat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *indēnsō, from Latin dēnsō (“to thicken, press together”), with a Latin prefix.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Pușcariu supposed a change of prefix in Latin condēnsō; the DA allows both this and a compound of the prefix and the verb.^[2][6] DELR and Papahagi also allow a Romanian formation with în- from an unrecorded ⟨*desa⟩, from the Latin verb.^[2] Ciorănescu notes that it could be an internal derivative of des “dense”.^[3]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian ndes and Megleno-Romanian andes.^[3][2][7] The variant îndesi, used mostly in the sense “to multiply”, is a change of conjugation for the DA;^[3] Densusianu derived it from Latin dēnsiō.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1560–1561, in Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[2] Tiktin's first date is 1563, Coresi's Praxiu.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is to press things or people together so that more fit into a narrow space; from it come “to drive in deep”, “to pull a hat down hard” and, reflexively, “to crowd together, thicken”.^[2][4] Ciorănescu also lists “to crush”, “to harass, hound”, “to multiply, repeat” and “to eat one's fill”.^[3] The DA groups the senses into material ones, opposed to rări “to thin out”, and the sense “to multiply”, which belongs mostly to the variant îndesi.^[6] The Bible of 1688 already has the forms îndesi and îndeși.^[9]

The participle îndesat became an adjective, “packed tight; stocky”, and in Aromanian ndisat means “emphatic” of speech, as in Romanian.^[3][10] Îndesătură “crowding” is recorded about 1650.^[2]

Timeline

• 1560–1561 – îndesa in Coresi's Tetraevanghel, the first record.^[2]
• 1563 – in Coresi's Praxiu.^[8]
• c. 1650 – îndesătură “crowding” in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[2]
• 1682–1686 – in Dosoftei's lives of the saints, MDA2's first record.^[5]
• 1688 – îndesi and îndeși in the Bucharest Bible.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To cram, press or force something into a small space; to pack a material tight.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To pull a hat or cap down hard on one's head.^[4]
3. (reflexive) To crowd together, press one against another.^[4][1]
4. (reflexive, popular) To hurry.^[4]
5. (reflexive) To thicken, become dense.^[3][2]

Word family

• îndesat
• îndesare
• îndesătură

Related words

• des
• adesea
• condensa

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. des
3. ^ 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. îndesa
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 544
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, 1221
6. ^ a b 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. îndesa
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 16
8. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. îndesa
9. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Sirach 20:20
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 743