înfrânge

Forms

înfrânge (third-person singular present înfrânge, past participle înfrânt, third-person subjunctive înfrângă), 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *infrangō (“to break completely”), a popular form of Latin infringō (“to break, to crush”) that took back the vowel of frangō (“to break”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Candrea and Densusianu point to the form in the Latin glossaries.^[6] It has cognates in Italian infrangere, French enfreindre and Occitan enfranher.^[5][6] Ciorănescu finds the Latin source unnecessary and takes the verb as formed from Romanian în- + frânge within the language, with a prefix of intensity.^[7] Tiktin gives both explanations.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the 16th-century psalters: the Psaltirea Scheiană has the past înfrânsă and the participle înfrântă.^[9] Tiktin cites Coresi's psalter of 1577 (Psalm 109:5).^[8] MDA2 dates it from Coresi's homilies of 1581.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb first meant “to break, to bend” and was used of heads, hearts and laws: the Bible of 1688 has the priest wring off the head of a dove, Varlaam tells the reader to break his heart with fasting, and a law or an order is “broken” when it is disobeyed.^[2][8] In the old language it also meant “to repent” and “to catch a venereal disease”;^[9] Ciorănescu records the related noun înfrântură “gonorrhoea”.^[8][3][7]

From “crush” came the military sense “to defeat”, which a Moldavian chronicle uses of the Hungarians defeating the Wallachians and which is now the main one.^[8][4] A further figurative sense is mastering a feeling: a-și înfrânge pornirea “to overcome one's impulse”.^[4][3] In folk verse se înfrânge is said of a road that forks.^[8][2]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – înfrânsă and înfrântă in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[9]
• 1577 – înfrânge in Coresi's psalter (Psalm 109:5).^[8]
• 1581 – înfrânge in Coresi's homilies.^[3]
• 1688 – înfrânse “he defeated” and înfrânt throughout the Bucharest Bible.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To defeat, to beat, to vanquish (in battle).^[4][3]
2. To master or suppress a feeling.^[4][3]
3. (rare) To disregard someone's will; to break a law or an order.^[4][3]
4. (obsolete) To break, to bend.^[3][8]

Word family

• înfrângere
• înfrânt

Related words

• frânge
• răsfrânge

Usage notes

It is conjugated like frânge: past simple înfrânsei, participle înfrânt.^[4][8]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. înfrânge
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1229
4. ^ 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. 547
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4412
6. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. înfrânge
7. ^ 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. frânge
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. înfrânge
9. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 314
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 2 Kingdoms 8:1