adormi

Forms

adormi (third-person singular present adoarme, past participle adormit, third-person subjunctive adoarmă) 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin addormiō (“to fall asleep”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Ciorănescu cites Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and the REW for it.^[2] The Latin verb, recorded in Caelius Aurelianus, is made of ad (“to”) and dormiō (“to sleep”).^[1][6]

Aromanian has adormu (infinitive adurnire).^[2][7][3] Romance cognates are old Italian addormire, Old French adormir, Occitan adormir, Catalan adormir, Spanish adormir and Portuguese adormir.^[8][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century: adorm “I fall asleep” (Psalm 12:4), with the variant adurmi.^[9][3] A Gospel text of 1551–1553 tells of the wise and foolish virgins: „începură a durmita toate și adurmiră” “they all began to slumber and fell asleep” (Matthew 25:5).^[10]

Semantic evolution

The verb is both intransitive, “to fall asleep”, and transitive, “to put to sleep”.^[5][4] In church language it became a euphemism for dying, a adormi în Domnul “to fall asleep in the Lord”, and a adormi somnul cel de veci “to sleep the eternal sleep”.^[10][4] Figuratively it means to soothe, lull or dull a feeling or a pain, and in the old language also to deceive or to kill.^[2][4]

The participle adormit is recorded as a noun from 1581, and adormitor “sleep-inducing” from 1802–1803.^[3] The plant name adormițele “pasque flower” (1855) comes from the flowers closing at sunset.^[3]

Timeline

• early 16th century – adorm in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[9][3]
• 1551–1553 – adurmiră “they fell asleep” in a Gospel text.^[10]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[4]
• 1581 – the noun adormit in Coresi.^[3]
• 1774 – neadormire “vigilance, care”.^[3]
• 1802–1803 – adormitor “sleep-inducing”.^[3]
• 1855 – the plant name adormițele.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To fall asleep: copilul a adormit repede.^[5][4][1]
2. (transitive) To put someone to sleep, to lull.^[5][4][1]
3. (intransitive, figurative, church language) To die: a adormit în Domnul.^[5][4][1]
4. (transitive) To soothe, ease, calm: a pain, hunger or a worry.^[5][4]

Word family

• adormit
• adormitor
• adormițele
• neadormire
• neadormit
• readormi
• adormire

Related words

• dormi
• dormita
• Aromanian adormu
• Latin addormio

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. adormi
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. adormi
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 18
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 15
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 157
9. ^ 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 12:4
10. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. adormi