înger

Forms

înger m (plural îngeri)^[1] MDA2 records the regional variants inger and ingiar and an old îngeriu;^[2][3][1] Damé and Wiktionary list ânger.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin angelus (“angel”), the Church Latin word, which is from Ancient Greek ἄγγελος (ángelos, “messenger”).^{[4][5][6][2][1]} The DA counts it among the oldest layer of Christian words in Romanian, unlike arhanghel, which came later through Greek and Slavonic.^[7] Its Romance cognates include Italian angelo, French ange, Spanish ángel and Portuguese anjo, beside Albanian engel.^[4][1] The Greek word may be an Eastern loan, like Ancient Greek ἄγγαρος (ángaros, “Persian mounted courier”); its religious sense translates Hebrew mal'āḵ “messenger”.^[8][9]

South of the Danube the word is different: Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian took anghil and anghil directly from Greek.^[4][10][11] The same Latin word gave the name Anghel by a later route.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the early 16th-century Psaltirea Hurmuzaki: Psalm 8:6 says that God made man a little lower than the angels.^[12] MDA2 dates the word from the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), where the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, „nece îngeru, nece duhu” “neither angel nor spirit”.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Besides the spiritual being, the word came to mean a person of great beauty and goodness, and it is used as a term of endearment.^[7][6] Înger păzitor “guardian angel”, the angel given to every person at baptism, also names someone who watches over another.^[2][6]

A further sense, “nature, character, will”, appears in the phrases tare de înger “firm, hard to frighten” and slab de înger “weak-willed, faint-hearted”.^[4][13] Ciorănescu explains it by the folk belief that a person's nature depends on their guardian angel.^[4] Înger-de-baltă “marsh angel”, first a mocking name, means the devil;^[7] Bogrea discussed it among the names of the devil.^[7] Regionally înger names the sweet william (Dianthus barbatus), and the plural can mean “children in surplices at the liturgy”.^[2][4]

Timeline

• early 16th century – îngeri in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 8:6).^[12]
• c. 1563–1583 – îngeru in the Codicele Voronețean.^[2][7]
• 1649 – îngeri in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – the word is frequent in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. An angel: in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, a spiritual being created by God, a servant and messenger between God and people.^[6][1]
2. înger păzitor: a guardian angel; a person who watches over someone's health and life.^[6][2]
3. (figurative) A person of great goodness or beauty; a term of endearment.^[6][2]
4. (regional, botany) sweet william (Dianthus barbatus).^[2][4]

Word family

• îngerea
• îngeresc
• îngerește

Related words

• arhanghel
• Anghel
• Latin angelus

Usage notes

Tare de înger means “brave, not easily moved” and slab de înger “weak-willed, timid”: E prea slab de înger ca să spună nu.^[6][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1232
3. ^ a b Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. 1
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. înger
5. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 73
6. ^ 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. 548
7. ^ a b c d e f 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. înger
8. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
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. 2, 13
11. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 18
12. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 8:6
13. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. Înger
14. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. îngeri
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 16:7