învește

Forms

învește (third-person singular present învește, past participle învăscut, third-person subjunctive învească) 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin investiō (“to clothe, cover”), itself from in- and vestiō (“to clothe”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Ciorănescu writes the etymon ⟨(in)vestīre⟩, allowing for the simple verb as well.^[2] The Latin verb is formed on vestis (“garment”).^[5][1]

The verb changed conjugation in Romanian.^[1] Tiktin explains the change by analogy: the second and third persons ⟨-vești⟩, ⟨*-veste⟩ led to a first person ⟨-vesc⟩ on the model of crește (⟨cresc⟩) and paște (⟨pasc⟩), as happened again in Aromanian escu (“I am”).^[6] The conjugation still wavers between ⟨învăsc⟩, ⟨învesc⟩ and ⟨înveștesc⟩, and a fourth-conjugation variant învești stands beside it.^[2][7]

The verb survives south of the Danube and in Istria: Aromanian nvescu, Megleno-Romanian anvescu and Istro-Romanian mnescu.^[2][8][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian investire and Spanish embestir, which means “to attack”.^[10] The French loan investi is its doublet.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb appears in the early 16th century, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, as învăscu and învească.^[11][12] Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 34:13), and MDA2 dates it from Coresi's Psalter of 1577.^[6][3] The sense there is “to clothe, dress”: in Coresi the psalmist clothes himself in sackcloth, translating Latin induebar.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The old texts use it for dressing a person: in Moxa's chronicle God clothes Adam and Eve in skins: „Și-i învăscu în piei” “and he clothed them in skins”.^[6][4] Dosoftei writes „te scoală de te-nvește și te-ncinge” “get up, dress and gird yourself”.^[6][13] Figurative uses follow from the 16th century on: God clothes the grass of the field in Coresi's Gospel homilies, and the land is clothed in snow in Dosoftei's verse psalter.^[4][13] Reflexive uses mean “to dress oneself” and “to adorn oneself”, and the verb also came to mean “to cover, wrap”.^[3][4]

The word fell out of the literary language.^[7] DA found it kept, almost only in folk poetry, in Bihor, Maramureș, Bucovina and north-eastern Transylvania.^[4] Ciorănescu records it in the speech of northern Transylvania and Bucovina, and DA has înveaște pernele “put the covers on the pillows” from Transylvania.^[2][4] Alecsandri revived it as an archaism.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – învăscu and învească in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[11][12]
• c. 1551-1558 – învești in the Psaltirea Voronețeană.^[14]
• 1570 – in Coresi's Psalter.^[11]
• c. 1573-1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[6][15]
• 1577 – in Coresi's Psalter, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1679 – „cu îmbrăcământ de veselie mă-nvăscă” “he clothed me in a garment of joy” in a printed liturgy.^[4]
• 1705 – in Dimitrie Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, archaic and regional) To clothe, to dress.^[7][3][1]
2. (reflexive, archaic and regional) To get dressed; to adorn oneself.^[3][4]
3. (transitive and reflexive, archaic) To cover, to wrap or surround.^[3][4]

Related words

• veșmânt
• învești
• dezvește
• investi
• Aromanian nvescu
• Latin investiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. învești
3. ^ 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, 1269
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. învește
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ 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. învești
7. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 561
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 791
9. ^ 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. 1, 184
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4531
11. ^ a b c 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 92:1
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 108:28
13. ^ a b Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 160
14. ^ 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 146:8
15. ^ 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 131:17