înfrângere

Forms

înfrângere f (plural înfrângeri)^[1]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of the verb, formed from Romanian înfrânge + -re.^[2][3][1] The verb goes back to *infrangere, a form of infringō (“to break, weaken”), made of in- and frangō (“to break”).^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581.^[2] The old senses were concrete and moral: a breaking, and the breaking of the heart in repentance.^[2] Klein's dictionary of 1801 glosses it with Latin fractio and confractio “breaking”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Besides “breaking”, old Romanian used the noun for contrition and humility, for a dissolute life, and even for a venereal disease, senses MDA2 marks as dated.^[2] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has it nine times, in Joshua, Kings, Jeremiah and Maccabees.^[5]

Nineteenth-century dictionaries still put “breaking” and “violation of a law” first: Pontbriant and Damé give French rupture, contravention and violation, and Damé adds défaite.^[6][7] Barcianu lists both “breaking” and “defeat in war”.^[8] By the 20th century “defeat” was the main sense, and the legal sense “infringement” had become rare.^[9][3]

Timeline

• 1581 – first record, in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[2]
• 1688 – nine times in the Bucharest Bible.^[5]
• 1801 – Klein glosses it “breaking”.^[4]
• 1862 – Pontbriant: “rupture; contravention, violation”.^[6]
• 1886 – Barcianu: “breaking; defeat in war”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. defeat: the act of defeating or of being defeated, especially in battle.^[3][2]
2. (figurative) The overcoming of someone's resistance; the mastering of a feeling.^[2]
3. (rare) infringement of a law or rule.^[3][2]

Related words

• înfrânge
• înfrânt
• frânge

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 547
4. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 380
5. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 2 Regi 17:9
6. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 349
7. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. înfrângere
8. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 314
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 325