învita

Forms

învita (third-person singular present învitează, past participle învitat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin invītō (“to invite, entertain; to encourage”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} De Vaan explains the Latin verb as a prefixed in- with a derived verb meaning “to pursue”, from Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁- (“to chase, pursue”); its origin is uncertain.^[6][1]

In most Romance languages the descendants of the Latin verb mean “to challenge, provoke”, a sense that DA traces to its use as a gaming term: Italian invitare, Old French envier, Spanish envidar and Portuguese envidar.^[5][7] The modern invita “to invite”, a borrowing of French inviter, is its doublet and has almost entirely replaced it.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1561, at Matthew 27:20; in DA's quotation of the verse the chief priests and elders „învitară gloatele, de să ceară Varavva” “urged the crowds to ask for Barabbas”, where the Bible of 1688 has îndemnară.^[3][5] Candrea and Densusianu add Coresi's homilies of 1564.^[7] The sense is “to urge, incite”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb was frequent in the old texts and was used by some 19th-century writers.^[5] In Dosoftei's lives of the saints it means both “to urge towards” a good thing and “to incite against” someone.^[3][5] The reflexive meant “to band together” against someone, as the boyars who rose against Duca-Vodă in Nicolae Costin's chronicle.^[3][8] Iordache Golescu distinguished it from its synonyms: îndemn is said of pleasant things, întărât of ugly ones and învitez of rebellions.^[5]

Later it survived only in the popular speech of some regions, while the neologism invita spread in the literary language.^[5][2] DA records it in Transylvania and Maramureș, with îl îngită pe scârbă “he eggs him on to a quarrel” from Năsăud;^[5][7] Candrea and Densusianu give a Moldavian înjita.^[5][7] Regional senses are “to whet the appetite” in Transylvania and, of a cow, “to be in heat”.^[4][5]

Timeline

• 1561 – învita “to urge” in Coresi's Tetraevanghel, the first record.^[3]
• 1564 – in Coresi's homilies.^[7]
• 1649 – învitez in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• c. 1650-1700 – in the Latin–Romanian glossary of the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[4]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible.^[10]
• 1825 – the noun învitătură in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic and regional) To urge, to incite.^[4][2][1]
2. (archaic and regional) To provoke, to instigate.^[4][2]
3. (reflexive, archaic) To band together against someone.^[4][2]
4. (regional, Transylvania) To whet the appetite.^[4]
5. (reflexive, regional, of a cow) To be in heat.^[4][5]

Word family

• învitător
• învitătură

Related words

• invita
• Latin invītō

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. învita
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. învita
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, 1270
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. învita
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e f Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. învita
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. învita
9. ^ 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. învitez
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Luke 23:23