înverzi

Forms

înverzi (third-person singular present înverzește, past participle înverzit), 4th conjugation^[1] Barac wrote the older ⟨dz⟩: „Chiprul frundze înverdzeaște” “the cypress grows green leaves”.^[2] Budai-Deleanu has a present înverde: „Tot ce înverde, ce înfloare și crește” “all that turns green, blooms and grows”.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian în- + verde (“green”).^[2][4][5][3] Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of the adjective, which continues viridis (“green”) in its shorter form virdis.^[6] Șăineanu gave Latin viridēscō (“to become green”) as its source, and Wiktionary allows a Vulgar Latin verb as well.^[7][1]

It has a parallel in Aromanian nvirdzãscu, which Pascu traces to *invirdiō, equivalent to the Classical Latin verb.^[8][9] Similar verbs are Italian inverdire, Catalan enverdir, Spanish enverdecer, Portuguese enverdecer and French verdir.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the Palia de la Orăștie of 1581–1582, in Genesis 40:9.^[3] The Bible of 1688 has the form înverzesc in Ezekiel 17:24.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Both the transitive “to make green” and the intransitive “to turn green” are old.^[2][3] Of trees and the countryside it means “to come into leaf, to be covered with greenery”, as in Alecsandri's „Lunca râde și-nverzește” “the meadow laughs and turns green”.^[2][11] Klein's dictionary of 1801 glosses it with Latin, Hungarian and German words for “to grow green”.^[12]

Of people, the figurative sense is to turn very pale with fear or anger.^[4][6] DEX also has “to stain with green”, and NODEX the use for water or food that turns green as it goes bad.^[4][13] MDA2 records the phrase a i se înverzi cuiva ochii, of an intense pain or a strong longing for someone.^[5]

Timeline

• 1581–1582 – in the Palia de la Orăștie, Genesis 40:9, the first record.^[3]
• 1688 – înverzesc in the Bucharest Bible, Ezekiel 17:24.^[10]
• 1801 – înverzesc in Klein's dictionary.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To colour green; to stain with green.^[4][5][1]
2. (intransitive and reflexive) To become green.^[4][5][1]
3. (intransitive) Of trees: to come into leaf; of the countryside: to be covered with greenery.^[4][5]
4. (figurative) Of people: to turn very pale with fear or anger.^[4][5]

Word family

• înverzire
• înverzitor

Related words

• verde
• verdeață
• Aromanian nvirdzãscu

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. înverzi
3. ^ 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. înverzi
4. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 560
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1268
6. ^ a b 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. verde
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 340
8. ^ 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, 183
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 768
10. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ezek 17:24
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 687
12. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 385
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. înverzi