îngemăna

Forms

a îngemăna (third-person singular present îngeamănă, past participle îngemănat; 1st conjugation)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ingeminō (“to redouble, to repeat”), as DEX, MDA2, Tiktin, the DA and Wiktionary give it.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin verb is formed with in- on geminō (“to double, to repeat”).^[6][1] Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of geamăn “twin”, while allowing that it may come straight from the Latin verb, as Pușcariu and Candrea–Densusianu hold.^[7][8] The neologism dictionaries only compare the Latin word.^[9]

It is matched by Aromanian ndzeamin “to join two things, to pair; to give birth to twins”.^[10][11][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Bucharest Bible of 1688: among the animals that may not be eaten are some of those that chew the cud and some of those „ce îngemeneadză copita”, whose hoof is cleft in two (Deuteronomy 14:7).^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Where Latin meant “to repeat, to redouble”, Romanian took the sense “to join closely, like twins”, said of two things of the same kind.^[5][8] Cantemir uses it of rivers that meet: the Rhine runs to the point „unde să îngeamănă”.^[5] The hoof sense of the Bible is obsolete.^[3] In modern use the verb belongs mostly to poetry: Vlahuță's lovers join their hearts and „îngemănându-și gândurile”, twin their thoughts.^[12][4] The participle îngemănat also means forked, of roads, and growing in pairs, of fruit.^[5]

Timeline

• 1688 – îngemeneadză in the Bucharest Bible (Deuteronomy 14:7), the first record.^[3][5]
• 1717–1723 – îngeamănă of the Rhine in Cantemir's Hronicul.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To join closely; to unite, to combine.^[2][3][1]
2. (transitive and reflexive) To mingle, to mix.^[2][3]
3. (obsolete, of ruminants) To have a cloven hoof.^[3][5]

Word family

• îngemănare

Related words

• geamăn
• Aromanian ndzeamin
• Latin geminus

Usage notes

The present is îngemănez or îngemăn (third person îngeamănă).^[2][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 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 Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. îngemăna
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. îngemăna
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ingeminō
7. ^ 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. geamăn
8. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. îngemăna
9. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. îngemăna
10. ^ 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, 80
11. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 746
12. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 635