îngreuna

Forms

îngreuna (third-person singular present îngreunează, past participle îngreunat), first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *ingrevināre, a derivative of *grevis, the popular form of Latin gravis (“heavy”).^[2][3][1] Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and the DA hold this view, and Candrea and Densusianu explain the prefix by the influence of îngreuia.^[4][5] MDA2 only compares the Latin form.^[6] It is matched by Aromanian ngriunedz.^[7][1]

Ciorănescu sees in it an expressive doublet of that verb, formed from Romanian greu + -una as mieuna is from the cry ⟨miau⟩.^[5] Tiktin derives it from the same adjective, comparing the -un- of grăsun, and cites Pușcariu's Latin form beside it.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1561.^[8] MDA2 dates the word to Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686), where it means “to weigh down” the heart: „A ce-ți îngreunedzi în zădar inema?” “why do you weigh down your heart in vain?”.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The word means “to make heavy” in the literal and the figurative sense, and so “to burden, to make difficult”.^[2][3] The DA notes that it is used mostly in Moldavia and Transylvania, and that where it lives beside îngreuia it has taken the sense “to weigh on, to burden”.^[2] Tiktin quotes a chronicle by Muste in which the country is burdened by someone's insatiable greed.^[8]

Some senses belong to old or regional use: “to make pregnant”, recorded by Candrea and Densusianu and Damé, “to get drunk” in the Hațeg region, and “to have indigestion” in Oltenia.^[4][2][6][9] MDA2 also records an obsolete reflexive “to become angry”.^[6] Barițiu's Hungarian–Romanian dictionary of 1869 gives it for Hungarian nyomaszt “to oppress” and súlyosbít “to aggravate”.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 1561 – the first record, in Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[8]
• 1682–1686 – îngreunedzi “you weigh down” in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[6][2]
• 1869 – the Romanian equivalent of Hungarian nyomaszt in Barițiu's dictionary.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To make or become heavier, to burden or weigh down.^[3][12]
2. (transitive, figurative) To give a feeling of heaviness or oppression: a strong smell can make the air heavy.^[3][12]
3. (transitive, figurative) To make something hard to do or to bear, to hamper or complicate.^[3][9]
4. (popular) To make a woman pregnant.^[9][2]
5. (reflexive, regional) To get drunk.^[6][2]
6. (reflexive, regional, Oltenia) To have indigestion.^[6]

Word family

• îngreunător

Related words

• greu
• îngreuia
• îngreca
• Aromanian ngriunedz
• Latin gravis

Usage notes

The present is îngreunez, rarely îngreun.^[3][8] The word is pronounced with e and u in separate syllables.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. îngreuna
3. ^ 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. 549
4. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
5. ^ a b 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. greu
6. ^ 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, 1235
7. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 732
8. ^ 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. îngreuna
9. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. îngreuna
10. ^ a b Barițiu, George (1869), Dictionariu unguresc-romanescu, Brașov, p. 404
11. ^ Barițiu, George (1869), Dictionariu unguresc-romanescu, Brașov, p. 496
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, 640