ajun

Forms

ajun n (plural ajunuri)^[1] A regional form is agiun, also in Moldavia: Alecsandri writes „Nu mă sfiesc acu, în agiunul morții, s-o mărturisesc” “I am not ashamed now, on the eve of death, to confess it”.^[2][3]

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as a back-formation from Romanian ajuna (“to fast”).^[4][5][6] The verb continues Latin iēiūnō (“to fast”) or its variant iaiūnō, from iēiūnus (“fasting, not having eaten”); the vowel ⟨a⟩ of the first syllable, recorded in the Itala, is shared by Spanish ayunar and other Romance forms.^[6] The loss of the initial /j/ is put down to dissimilation.^[6] DELR also allows a form *ēiūnō with unstressed /e/ > /a/, as in arici from ēricius.^[6]

Other views derive the noun straight from Latin.^[6][7] Tiktin allowed iēiūnum, the neuter of the adjective used as a noun, which DELR finds problematic.^[2][6] Ciorănescu prefers iaiūnus, the Plautine form, with dissimilation to *aiūnus; he compares French jeun, Spanish ayuno and Albanian agjëroj (“to fast”),^[1] and he lists the verb as the noun's derivative.^[7] Graur's book of related words gives iēiūnium (“fast”).^[8]

The noun survives as Istro-Romanian jun (“fast”).^[9][7] Aromanian agiun is the adjective “hungry”, from the Latin adjective, and the Aromanian verb has the same form.^[6][10] Romance relatives include Italian digiuno.^[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, with the sense “fast”.^[6] Coresi's Psalter has it at Psalm 34:16 in 1570, and Tiktin quotes a text of 1580 that urges the reader to train the body „cu postul și cu ajunul” “with fasting and abstinence”.^[12][2]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the word meant a fast or a day of fasting, as the Latin verb did.^[4][2] The Academy dictionary found this sense alive in the early 20th century only in Transylvania, for a fast kept on Tuesdays to bring harm on an enemy.^[4] Because the days before the great feasts were fast days, the word came to mean the eve of a feast, above all Ajunul Crăciunului “Christmas Eve”, personified as Moș Ajun, and the eve of New Year.^[2][13][7] From there it came to mean the day or the time just before any event, as in în ajunul alegerilor “on the eve of the elections”.^[2][7]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[6]
• 1560–1561 – the verb ajuna in Coresi's Pravila.^[6]
• 1564 – ajun in Coresi's Cazania.^[2]
• 1570 – ajun in Coresi's Psalter, Psalm 34:16, and the noun ajunat “fasting”.^[12][6]
• 1580 – cu postul și cu ajunul “with fasting and abstinence”.^[2]
• 1590–1602 – ajunător “one who fasts” in the Codex Sturdzanus.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The eve: the day, or by extension the period, before an event, în ajun “the day or evening before; shortly before”: Sosiseră în ajun.^[5][3]
2. The day before certain Christian feasts, above all Christmas and Epiphany.^[14][7]
3. (dated) fasting, a strict fast; a day on which one fasts.^[5][3][1]

Related words

• ajuna
• ajunat
• ajunător
• post
• dejun
• Aromanian agiun
• Latin iēiūnus

Usage notes

In folk custom, children go from house to house on the night before Christmas Eve with the greeting Bună dimineața la Moș Ajun! “Good morning to Father Eve!”, and are given gifts.^[2] Tiktin notes that the custom is not to be confused with carolling (colindă).^[2][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ajun
3. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 31
4. ^ a b c 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. ajun
5. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 23
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. ajun
7. ^ 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. ajun
8. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 53
9. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S.
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
11. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ 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 34:16
13. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. ajun
14. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 48