îngenunchea

Forms

îngenunchea (third-person singular present îngenunchează or îngenunche, past participle îngenuncheat), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ingenuculō (“to kneel”), the popular form of Latin ingeniculō,^{[2][3][4][5][1]} formed on geniculum (“knee”).^[1] Wiktionary gives a shortened *ingenuclō as the immediate source.^[1]

The verb survives in Aromanian ndzinuclju.^[6][1] Its Romance cognates include Italian inginocchiare, French agenouiller, Occitan engenolhar, Catalan agenollar, Spanish ahinojar and Portuguese ajoelhar.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel of Sibiu (1551–1553), at Matthew 27:29.^[5] An anonymous Latin–Romanian dictionary of about 1650 glosses genuflecto with it, and Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686), MDA2's first record, have „genunchind la prag, feace rugă” “kneeling at the threshold, he prayed”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The verb first meant “to kneel down”, and old texts and folk verse also have the shorter genunchia.^[2][3] Used transitively, it means to make someone kneel and so, figuratively, to subdue or subjugate.^[4][3] Another figurative sense is “to lose one's strength”.^[3]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel of Sibiu.^[5]
• c. 1650 – a gloss for Latin genuflecto.^[2]
• 1682–1686 – genunchind in Dosoftei, MDA2's first record.^[3][2]
• 1688 – îngenunchind “kneeling” in the Bucharest Bible.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To kneel, to go down on one's knees.^[4][1]
2. (transitive, figurative) To subdue, to subjugate;^[4][1] (rare) to hand over to an enemy.^[4][1]

Word family

• îngenunchere

Related words

• genunchi
• Latin geniculum

Usage notes

The present is usually îngenunchez, with an older îngenunchi.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. îngenunchia
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 d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 548
5. ^ 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. îngenunchea
6. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 722
7. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
8. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mt 17:14