îndura

Forms

îndura (third-person singular present îndură, past participle îndurat, third-person subjunctive îndure) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin indūrō (“to make hard, harden”), formed on dūrus (“hard”).^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} DEX takes the sense “to endure” partly from French endurer.^[4] Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu, and the REW give the Latin source.^[2][7] Ciorănescu rejects Philippide's derivation from *indolēscō.^[2]

The other Romance cognates are Italian indurare and Spanish endurar;^[2][7] Ciorănescu also compares Albanian duroj.^[2][7]

How a verb for “hardening” came to mean “to have mercy” has been much debated.^[2] Candrea and Densusianu started from the reflexive “to harden one's heart” in negative and questioning sentences, as in the Vulgate's „adhuc ergo tu induras ne dimittas illos?”: “not to have the heart to harm” became “to take pity”.^[8] The Academy dictionary and Iordan explained it the same way, while Graur saw a Balkan development.^[2] Ciorănescu points to the parallel of the French verb and of răbda, where hardening led to bearing and bearing to consenting.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to Coresi's Molitvenic of 1564.^[5] MDA2 gives Dosoftei's verse psalter of 1671.^[3] The old sense “to be pitiless” shows in the 1688 Bible: „Doamne, nu te îndura de norodul tău” “Lord, do not be hard on thy people”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the reflexive meant “to be harsh, unmoved”, mostly in negative or questioning sentences such as cum te înduri de mine? “how can you be so hard on me?”.^[9][3] By the earliest texts the reversed sense “to have mercy” was already present, and both can be found in the same work.^[1][5] From “having the heart to do something” came “to bring oneself to, to decide”, and in the negative “not to have the heart to part from someone”.^[3][9]

DEX ties the transitive “to endure, to suffer” partly to the French verb.^[4] Old derivatives such as îndurătură (Coresi, 1580) and îndurăminte (Dosoftei) meant “mercy”.^[8]

Timeline

• 1564 – first record, in Coresi's Molitvenic.^[5]
• 1580 – îndurătură “mercy” in Coresi's Cazania.^[8]
• c. 1660 – îndurat glosses Slavonic “merciful, generous” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• 1671 – Dosoftei's verse psalter.^[3]
• 1688 – te-ai îndurat de fiiul tău “thou hast not spared thy son” in the Bucharest Bible.^[5][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To endure, to bear patiently a trouble, pain or illness.^[4][1]
2. (reflexive) To show mercy, to relent; to take pity on someone: Îndură-te de noi! “Have mercy on us!”^[4][3]
3. (reflexive) To bring oneself to, to consent: Nu se îndura să plece de acasă. “He could not bring himself to leave home.”^[4][1]
4. (reflexive, obsolete) To be harsh, pitiless.^[3][1]

Word family

• neîndurat
• îndurător
• neîndurător
• îndurare

Related words

• dura
• Latin indūrō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. îndura
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1224
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. 545
5. ^ 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. îndurá
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4386
8. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 857
9. ^ 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. îndura
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. îndurat
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 22:12