însemna

Forms

însemna (present însemn or însemnez, third-person singular înseamnă or însemnează, past participle însemnat), 1st conjugation^[2][1] Old texts have însămna: „Sfânta se însămnă cu sfânta cruce” “the saint crossed herself with the holy cross” (Dosoftei).^[3] The old language also used semna in the sense “to mean”: „manahu, carea seamnă: ce e aceasta?” “manna, which means: what is this?” (Exodus 16:15).^[3]

Etymology

The sources divide between a Latin verb and a Romanian formation.^[2][4] The REW and Wiktionary make it inherited from Vulgar Latin *insignō (“to mark”), the source of Italian insegnare, French enseigner and Spanish enseñar “to teach”;^[5][1][6] Graur also derives it from Latin insignō.^[5][1][6] DEX and MDN give the Latin verb or a formation from Romanian în- + semn as alternatives, and MDA2 gives only the Romanian formation.^[2][7][8] Ciorănescu derives it from semn or from Latin signō (“to mark”);^[4][3] Tiktin gives only the Latin verb.^[4][3] The DA starts from the Latin verb, which already meant “to put a mark on cattle” and “to have a sense”, with the prefix added either in Romanian or in spoken Latin.^[9] The Latin verb is from signum (“mark, sign”), the source of the Romanian noun.^[10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the Codicele Voronețean (16th century), in Acts 25:27, where the verb means “to indicate, to state”.^[3] MDA2 cites it first from Grigore Ureche's chronicle.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Three groups of senses run side by side from the 17th century on: “to mark, to put a sign on”, “to note, to write down” and “to signify, to mean”.^[9][3] The DA quotes a text of 1654 in which the church stairs have twelve steps însemnând the twelve tribes of Israel.^[9] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss its forms with Slavonic words for marking and tracing.^[11] The reflexive meant “to cross oneself” and later also “to distinguish oneself”.^[3][8]

Regional speech uses it for aiming a weapon.^[8] In slang it means “to beat someone badly”.^[12] From a însemna “to mean” came însemnătate “importance” and însemnat “important”, and with ne- neînsemnat “insignificant”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1563-1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean (Acts 25:27), the first record.^[3]
• 1654 – însemnând “symbolising” in a church text.^[9]
• 1660 – însemnez in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicon Lex.St.^[11]
• 1688 – însemnează and însemnat in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To mark, to put a distinguishing sign on: a însemna cu fierul roșu “to brand”.^[2][8][1]
2. To note down, to write down.^[2][8][1]
3. To mark the limits of.^[2]
4. To mean, to signify: Ce înseamnă asta? “What does this mean?”; of words, to have a given sense.^[2][8][1]
5. To matter, to have importance: a nu însemna nimic “to mean nothing, to count for nothing”.^[2][8]

Word family

• însemnare
• însemnat
• însemnătate
• neînsemnat

Related words

• semn
• semna
• Latin signō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 553
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. însemná
4. ^ 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. semn
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4462
6. ^ a b Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 84–85
7. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. însemna
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1246
9. ^ 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. însemna
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b 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. însemnez
12. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. însemna
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Proverbs 6:13