însă

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ipsa, the feminine of ipse (“himself, the very one”), through the feminine of the old Romanian pronoun îns “himself, herself”.^[2][3][1] The nasal before /s/ is old: DER, after Densusianu, explains it by the Latin pronoun's use after prepositions such as in and cum, the DA by the analogy of words with the prefix in-, and both cite the attested Latin spelling ⟨inpsuius⟩.^[2][4] The pronoun has Aromanian nis, Megleno-Romanian ons and Istro-Romanian ăns beside it in the other branches, and Romance cognates such as Italian esso and Occitan eis.^[2]

The change from pronoun to conjunction is a Romanian development: DER compares Italian medesimamente from medesimo and the adverb French mêmement from même, and follows the explanation of Meyer-Lübke's Romance grammar and the DA.^[2] The DA groups the pronoun, the adverb and the conjunction in one article, with “namely” and “but, however” as the later senses; modern dictionaries keep only the second.^[4][5] Scriban and Șăineanu also take the conjunction from the Latin feminine through the pronoun.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record of the conjunction is in the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578), Psalm 38:7.^[8] MDA2 dates it from Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581.^[3] The form însă is already frequent in the Hurmuzaki psalter of the early 16th century, where the psalter index files it under the pronoun îns.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the feminine însă was still a pronoun, “herself, itself”: Coresi writes „Tu ești însă împăratul mieu” “thou thyself art my king”.^[4] As a conjunction it meant “namely, that is” and “but, however”.^[4][2] Tiktin describes it as a stronger opposition than dar, standing to it roughly as Latin autem to sed.^[8] Scriban, in 1939, marked it as gone from the spoken language, while Șăineanu and CADE still described it as a stronger “but”, often placed after the first word of the clause.^[6][7][10]

Timeline

• early 16th century – însă in the Hurmuzaki psalter, filed under the pronoun.^[9]
• c. 1573–1578 – the conjunction in the Psaltirea Scheiană, Tiktin's first record.^[8]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Carte de învățătură, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1688 – about 170 occurrences of însă in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. (adversative) however, yet, but: links two clauses or two parts of a clause in contrast: A promis că vine, n-a venit însă.^[5][3][1]
2. (marking a turn to another idea) but, on the other hand.^[5][3]

Related words

• îns
• însuși
• dânsul
• ins

Usage notes

Unlike dar, însă need not open its clause: it often follows the first word, as in el însă a rămas “he, however, stayed”.^[10][6]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. îns
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1244
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. îns
5. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 552
6. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 697
7. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 330
8. ^ 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. însă
9. ^ 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 38:8
10. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. însă
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Judges 4:9