întinge

Forms

întinge (third-person singular present întinge, past participle întins, third-person subjunctive întingă) 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin intingō (“to dip in”), formed on tingō (“to wet, dip, dye”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Ciorănescu derives it from the simple verb, and MDA2 from Romanian în- and the simple verb.^[6][7] The REW sets it beside Italian intingere and Occitan entenher.^[4] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to make wet”), with Ancient Greek τέγγω (téngō, “to make wet”) as a cognate.^[5]

Its compound atinge “to touch” is of the same Latin family, and the DA compares it.^[8] Graur lists the verb with tinctură, a later learned loan from the same Latin verb.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Gospel text of 1551–1553, Matthew 26:23, the verse of the man who dips his hand in the dish with Jesus.^[3] MDA2 gives Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1574, where the same verse reads „Cela ce întinge mâna cu mine în solniță, acela mă vinde” “he that dips his hand with me in the salt dish, he shall betray me”.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the verb means dipping in general: a finger into water (Varlaam), the priest's finger into blood in the Bible of 1688, a pen into the inkpot (Ghica).^[8][3] Its popular sense is dipping bread or polenta into a sauce or fat: „Înghițea felie după felie și întingea în topitură bucăți mari de mămăligă” (Sadoveanu).^[8][10] The old and regional sense “to touch” is recorded in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis and Cantemir.^[8]

The DA wrote that the word had dropped out of use in most regions because its participle întins was the same as that of întinde, but Ciorănescu thinks it is not so rare in the modern language.^[8][6] The proverb pune brânza în sticlă și întinge pe dinafară “puts the cheese in a bottle and dips on the outside” is said of a miser, or of someone who gets nothing done.^[3][8][7]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – first record, a Gospel text (Matthew 26:23).^[3]
• 1574 – întinge in Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[7][8]
• 1649 – înting in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1688 – întinge in the Bucharest Bible (Leviticus 4:6).^[12][3]
• 1862 – Pontbriant takes it from Latin intingere.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (popular) To dip bread or polenta into a dish, sauce or fat: Întingea pâinea în ciorbă.^[2][7][1]
2. To dip something lightly into a liquid, such as a pen into ink.^[2][7]
3. (regional) To touch.^[7][8]

Word family

• întinsoare

Related words

• atinge
• tinctură

Usage notes

The simple past is întinsei and the past participle întins, the same as those of întinde “to stretch”.^[2][6] DER notes the same overlap between încinge and încinde.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 556
3. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. întinge
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4504
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d 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. întinge
7. ^ 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, 1254
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. întinge
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 103
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 665
11. ^ 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. înting
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Leviticus 4:6
13. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 369