învenina

Forms

învenina (third-person singular present înveninează, past participle înveninat), 1st conjugation^[1] The old language also has venina without the prefix: Ispirescu's tales say „Cu dinții l-a veninat” “he poisoned him with his teeth”.^[2][3] MDA2 lists the regional variants înverina and învinina, and an old present învenin.^[4]

Etymology

In DEX it is inherited from Latin invenenō (“to poison”).^[5] The DA, followed by Tiktin, gives Latin venenō (“to poison”), with or without the prefix in-, and Șăineanu the plain verb.^[3][2][6] The Latin verb is formed on venēnum (“poison”).^[1][7]

Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of venin “poison”, itself inherited from the same Latin noun, and MDA2 too takes it as formed from Romanian în- + venin, comparing the Latin verb.^[8][4] Wiktionary calls the derivation from the noun the likelier one.^[1]

It has a parallel in Aromanian nvirinedz, whose sense is “to become sad”;^[9][10][11] Pascu gives the plain Latin verb as its source.^[9][10][11] Wiktionary compares Spanish envenenar, Portuguese envenenar, Venetian invełenar and Italian avvelenare.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a text of Dimitrie Cantemir of 1698, with the sense “to make poisonous”.^[2] MDA2 dates it from Piscupescu's health manual Oglinda sănătății of 1829, in a figurative use: the dragon that poisons all faith and unity.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The literal senses are to fill something with venom, to make it poisonous, and to kill with poison;^[2][3][12] Tiktin separates it from otrăvi, which is “to give someone poison”.^[2][3][12] Konaki wrote of the sun that makes harmful herbs even more poisonous.^[3]

The figurative senses grew from the reflexive “to become poisonous”: to grow bitter, to make a situation unbearable, to fill someone with anger, envy, hatred or grief.^[2][4][5] The DA marks these as the main senses of its own time.^[3] Barițiu's Hungarian–Romanian dictionary of 1869 gives it for Hungarian mérgesít (“to poison; to anger”).^[13]

Timeline

• 1698 – in a text of Dimitrie Cantemir, the first record.^[2]
• 1829 – in Piscupescu's Oglinda sănătății.^[4]
• 1869 – the equivalent of Hungarian mérgesít in Barițiu's dictionary.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To poison with venom; to make something venomous.^[5][4][1]
2. (figurative, reflexive and transitive) To become or make unpleasant and hard to bear; to grow or make worse.^[5][4]
3. (figurative, reflexive and transitive) To fill or be filled with anger, bitterness, envy or hatred; to embitter.^[5][4][1]

Word family

• înveninare

Related words

• venin
• Aromanian nvirinedz

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. învenina
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. învenina
4. ^ 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, 1268
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 560
6. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 340
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ 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. venin
9. ^ a b 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, 186
10. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 792
11. ^ a b Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 768
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, 686
13. ^ a b Barițiu, George (1869), Dictionariu unguresc-romanescu, Brașov, p. 373