îndrăzni

Forms

îndrăzni (third-person singular present îndrăznește, past participle îndrăznit) 4th conjugation^[1] Old texts also write îndrăsni: „Te-aș iubi și nu 'ndrăsnesc” “I would love you and I do not dare”, in a folk song.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian în- + drăzni, the old verb “to dare” being from Old Church Slavonic дрьзнѫти (drĭznǫti, “to take courage, to dare”).^[3][4][1] Ciorănescu takes the whole verb straight from the Slavonic verb, which he derives from the Slavonic adjective for “bold”.^[5] The Academy dictionary also explains it as the Slavonic verb compounded with a prefix.^[2] The Slavonic verb goes back to Proto-Slavic *dьrznǫti, formed on the root of *dьrzati with the suffix *-nǫti.^[1][6]

Pușcariu considered the word a learned term of the church language, a view Ciorănescu rejects as against all appearances.^[5] Romanian dârz “stubborn, defiant” comes from the same Slavonic root.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), the 16th-century translation of the Acts of the Apostles: „și întră în gloată, îndrăzniia” “and he went into the crowd and spoke boldly” (Acts 19:8), where the Greek has a verb of speaking freely.^[2][8][3] The early sense is “to take courage, to speak or act without fear”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th-century texts the verb is used absolutely for taking heart: Coresi's Cazania has Christ telling the sick man „Îndrăznește, fiiule” “take heart, son”, and the Tetraevanghel of 1574 has „Îndrăzniți, eu sânt, nu vă temeți” “take heart, it is I, do not fear”.^[2] The person one dared to approach or confront was once expressed with the prepositions către, spre, asupra or la, or with a dative.^[2]

The old language also used it as a transitive verb, “to encourage”: the Bible of 1688 has „Și pre mine mă îndrăznește” “and encourage me”.^[8] A reflexive a se îndrăzni “to venture” occurs in documents of 1814.^[8] The Moldavian law code of 1646 already has the modern construction with a following verb, “not dare to cross the boundary”.^[8] In modern Romanian the verb means “to dare” and is mostly followed by a subjunctive.^[9][4] Its derivatives include îndrăzneală “boldness” and îndrăzneț “bold”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – îndrăzniia “he spoke boldly” in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1574 – îndrăzniți “take heart” in the Tetraevanghel.^[2]
• 1646 – the construction with a following verb in the Moldavian law code.^[8]
• 1649 – îndrăznesc in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• 1688 – transitive “to encourage” and absolute “take heart” in the Bucharest Bible.^[8][11]
• 1814 – reflexive a se îndrăzni in a document.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To dare, to have the courage to do something, not to be afraid; to venture.^[4][3]
2. Not to be shy; to speak one's mind or show one's feelings openly.^[3][2]
3. (obsolete) To encourage; reflexive, to boast.^[3][8]
4. (with la) To attack someone.^[3]

Word family

• îndrăznitor
• îndrăzneală
• îndrăzneț
• neîndrăzneț

Related words

• dârz

Usage notes

The proverb Cine nu îndrăznește, nu izbutește means “who does not dare does not succeed”.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. îndrăzni
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1223
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 545
5. ^ a b c 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. îndrăzni
6. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 321
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. îndrăzni
9. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. îndrăzni
10. ^ 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. îndrăznesc
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mt 14:27