învinge

Forms

învinge (third-person singular present învinge, past participle învins, third-person subjunctive învingă), 3rd conjugation.^[1] Until the 17th century the verb also had the forms (în)vence and (în)vince, with the participle (în)vencut.^[2][3] Moxa's chronicle (1620) has „Învenseră Turcii pre Unguri” “the Turks defeated the Hungarians”.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian în- + vince, the old verb for “to defeat” being from Latin vincō (“to conquer”).^[6][5][1][7] Ciorănescu takes the whole verb straight from the Latin verb.^[3][8] The /g/ of the modern form replaced the older /k/ by analogy: the participle învins matched those of verbs like stinge, linge and încinge, and the present followed them.^[3][4]

South of the Danube the verb is Aromanian azvingu, with another prefix, and Megleno-Romanian anving or ving.^[9][3] The Romance cognates include Italian vincere, French vaincre, Spanish vencer and Portuguese vencer.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The prefixless vence “to overcome” is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[10] The prefixed verb is first recorded in Coresi's Psalter of 1570, in the second person învingi: “that thou mightest overcome when thou art judged”.^[11] Tiktin dates the verb to the Psaltirea Scheiană, MDA2 to Moxa's chronicle of 1620.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The old texts used the verb for winning a battle, a dispute or a contest, often with a dative, after the Slavonic construction.^[2][4] Dosoftei wrote „Să nu-m poată învince pizmașii” “so that my enemies may not overcome me”.^[2] In the 18th century the word was pushed out almost entirely by birui and izbândi, and it came back in the 19th century, helped by its Latin origin, in the newer form învinge.^[2][4]

Modern Romanian also uses it for mastering a passion or overcoming an obstacle, and for winning a sports competition.^[6][5] Derivatives include învins “defeated”, neînvins “undefeated” and învingător “victor”.^[3]

Timeline

• early 16th century – vence in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[10]
• 1570 – învingi and învingă in Coresi's Psalter, the first record of the prefixed verb.^[11]
• 1620 – învenseră “they defeated” in Moxa's chronicle.^[5][4]
• 1649 – înving “I overcome” in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1673 – învince in Dosoftei's verse Psalter.^[2]
• 1688 – învinci and învinge in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]
• 18th century – displaced by birui.^[2][4]
• 19th century – back in use as învinge.^[2][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To defeat an enemy or opponent in war.^[6][1]
2. (transitive) To win a sports competition, to come out the winner.^[6][5]
3. (transitive) To master a desire, a passion or a weakness: și-a învins teama “he overcame his fear”.^[6]
4. (transitive) To overcome difficulties or obstacles.^[6]
5. (intransitive) To succeed in carrying something through.^[6]

Word family

• învins
• neînvins
• învingător
• învingere

Related words

• evinge
• previnge
• victorie
• Aromanian azvingu
• Latin vincō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. învínge
3. ^ 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. învinge
4. ^ 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. învinge
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, 1269
6. ^ 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. 561
7. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. învinge
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9338
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 186
10. ^ 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 9:32
11. ^ 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 50:5
12. ^ 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. înving
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. De la Matthei 16:18