îngâna

Forms

a îngâna (third-person singular present îngână, past participle îngânat, third-person subjunctive îngâne; 1st conjugation)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ingannō (“to mock, to imitate the voice”), a Latin verb that is not attested in classical texts.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Only related forms such as Latin gannator (“mocker”) and ingannatura occur in the glosses, and Wiktionary notes the verb in a gloss of the Reichenau Glossary.^[7][4][1] It is formed on ganniō (“to yelp”), an imitative word.^[8][1] Ciorănescu derives it from gannāre or from the prefixed verb, and compares Medieval Latin gannatura (“mockery”).^[9]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian angan “to call the dogs or the sheep”, Megleno-Romanian angan “to deceive” and Istro-Romanian gănesc “to chat”.^[9][10][11] The Romance cognates mean “to deceive”: Italian ingannare, Old French enjaner, Occitan enganar, Catalan enganyar, Spanish engañar and Portuguese enganar.^[5][8] Albanian gënjej “to lie” is a loan from the same Latin verb, according to Wiktionary.^[1]

Because of the Latin /nn/ the expected Romanian form was *îngăna, which Aromanian keeps;^[9][7] Ciorănescu explains /î/ by assimilation to the initial /î/, or by an expressive treatment that brought the word near gângăvi and the other words of the root ⟨gâng-⟩ “to stammer”.^[9][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DÉRom dates the verb from the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, a manuscript of about 1500–1520, in the sense “to mock someone by repeating their words”.^[6] The Psaltirea Scheiană uses it to render Slavonic verbs for imitating and for provoking.^[12] Coresi's psalter of 1577 has „Dracii noștri îngânară-ne” “our devils mocked us” at Psalm 79:7, MDA2's first record.^[13][3]

Semantic evolution

The DA traces the meanings to a herdsman's and hunter's word for imitating an animal's call to lure it: Romanian kept “to imitate a voice” and “to mock”, while the western Romance languages moved on to “to deceive”, and Aromanian kept the herdsman's sense of calling the dogs and sheep.^[4][7] From imitating a voice came echoing, answering and reflecting an image; mocking led to parody.^[13][9] A second line gave “to mumble, to murmur, to hum”, uttering words that cannot be made out.^[4][2] In the reflexive the verb means that sounds or colours blend, and se îngână ziua cu noaptea “day blends with night” is said of dawn and of dusk.^[3][2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[6]
• c. 1573–1578 – îngânară-ne in the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 79:7).^[13]
• 1577 – îngânară-ne in Coresi's psalter.^[3][13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To imitate or repeat someone's words or voice, often to mock them.^[2][1]
2. (transitive) To say or sing something softly and indistinctly; to murmur, to hum, to mormăi.^[2][14]
3. (transitive and reflexive) To keep someone company, to accompany;^[2][3] (reflexive) to delude oneself.^[2][3]
4. (reflexive) To blend, to merge;^[2][3] a se îngâna ziua cu noaptea “to dawn; to grow dark”.^[2][3]
5. (rare) To sway gently; to rock.^[2]
6. To imitate an animal's call in order to lure it.^[3][13]

Word family

• îngânător
• îngânătură

Related words

• Aromanian angan
• Italian ingannare

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 548
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, 1232
4. ^ a b c d 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. îngâna
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4416
6. ^ a b c Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom, p. s.v. *ingannare
7. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. îngîna
8. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. ingannare
9. ^ a b c d e 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. îngîna
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 106
11. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 126
12. ^ 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
13. ^ 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. îngâna
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. îngâna