îndulci

Forms

îndulci (third-person singular present îndulcește, past participle îndulcit) 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *indulcīre (“to make sweet”), formed on Latin dulcis (“sweet”); the Latin glosses have a verb indulcēre, and the inchoative present forms point to *indulcēscō.^[2][3] Pușcariu, Densusianu and Candrea–Densusianu derive it directly from the Latin verb.^[4][2] DELR lists the Romance cognates Romansh indutschir, Italian indolcire, Sardinian indurchire, Old French endoucir, Catalan endolsir and Old Spanish endulcir.^[2]

DEX, MDA2 and NODEX instead treat it as formed from Romanian în- + dulce, which DELR thinks less likely.^[5][6][7][2] Wiktionary gives both explanations.^[1] It survives south of the Danube as Aromanian ndultsescu.^[4][8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500–1520).^[2] There Psalm 36:4 has îndulcește in the sense “delight yourself”, and Psalm 103:35 îndulcea.^[9][10] The literal sense is in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581: „Apa... îndulceaște pre smochini, amăraște pre pelin” “water sweetens the figs and makes the wormwood bitter”.^[6][11]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb had both the literal sense “to make sweet” and the figurative “to make pleasant, delight”.^[2][11] It came to mean “to make less harsh, soften”, said of a voice, a punishment or a climate.^[3][6] The reflexive a se îndulci meant “to eat of something tasty”, especially what was forbidden during a fast, then “to take a liking to something” and “to profit by it”; in the old language it also meant “to come into the enjoyment of, inherit”, translating Slavonic насладити.^[3][2][6] A proverb sums up the power of speech: limba îndulcește, limba amărăște “the tongue sweetens, the tongue embitters”.^[3]

DELR dates a family of derivatives: îndulcitură “sweet food, spice” (1665–1685, Milescu), the hapax îndulcință “delight” (1679, Dosoftei), îndulcitor “sweetening, seductive” (1691–1697, Corbea), and in Transylvania îndulcită “honey cake” (1886).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – îndulcește in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2][9]
• 1581 – the literal sense “to sweeten” in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[6][11]
• 1660 – a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon glosses Slavonic насладитсѧ with it.^[12]
• 1665–1685 – îndulcitură in Milescu's Septuagint translation.^[2]
• 1679 – îndulcință “delight” in Dosoftei.^[2]
• 1688 – îndulci in the Bucharest Bible, of the bitter water made sweet (Exodus 15:25).^[13]
• 1691–1697 – îndulcitor in Corbea's dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) to sweeten a food or drink, with sugar or honey;^[5][6] (popular) to make tastier.^[5][6]
2. (reflexive) to eat of something tasty, to feast on;^[5] a se îndulci la ceva “to find something good and keep coming back to it”.^[5]
3. (reflexive) to profit, benefit from something.^[5]
4. (transitive, figurative) to make better, to fill with contentment, to delight.^[5]
5. (transitive, figurative) to make less harsh or violent; to soften, tone down;^[5] (transitive and reflexive) to calm down, mollify.^[5]
6. (obsolete, religious) to inherit.^[6][3]

Word family

• îndulcitor
• îndulcitură

Related words

• dulce
• dulceață
• Aromanian ndultsescu

References

1. ^ a b c 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” (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. îndulci
3. ^ 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. îndulci
4. ^ a b 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. dulce
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 545
6. ^ 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, 1224
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. îndulci
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 745
9. ^ a b 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 36:4
10. ^ 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 103:35
11. ^ a b c 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. îndulci
12. ^ 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. îndulci
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ieșirea 15:25