ajuna

Forms

ajuna (third-person singular present ajunează, past participle ajunat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *aiūnō (“to fast”), a form of Late Latin ieiūnō (“to fast”), from Latin ieiūnus (“fasting, hungry”).^[2][1] DELR, with Tiktin, Candrea–Densusianu and CADE, derives it from *eiūnō or the form above, variants of the Late Latin verb and of its older form iaiūnō; the REW counts the verb among the words shared by the whole Romance area.^[2][3] Candrea–Densusianu explain the /a/ by the parallel of the forms with /ia-/ and /ie-/; the DA by dissimilation.^[4][5] DEX, NODEX and DLRM give it as *adiūnō.^[6][7][8]

Ciorănescu takes the other direction: for him the noun ajun “fast; eve” comes straight from iaiūnus, and the verb is a derivative of the noun, whereas most scholars make the noun a back-formation from the verb.^[9] The verb survives south of the Danube: Aromanian agiun (“to be hungry; to fast”).^[2][10][11] Romance cognates include Italian digiunare, French jeûner, Catalan dijunar, Spanish ayunar and Portuguese jejuar.^[3] The DA compares Albanian agjëroj (“to fast”);^[5][1] Wiktionary also notes a proposal that the Romanian verb was borrowed from the Gheg form agjinoj.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Coresi's Pravila of 1560–1561.^[2][12] The Bible of 1688 has Esther's request: „Și ajunați pentru mine și nici să mâncați nici să beți trei zile” “and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink for three days”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The verb belongs to the language of the church: it meant keeping a full fast, eating nothing at all, and so going hungry.^[6][2] Dosoftei writes of a saint who „ajună trei zâle nemâncat” “fasted three days without eating”.^[5] Folk custom used it for the fasts before feasts: girls did not eat on Epiphany or Holy Cross Day until they had kissed the cross.^[5] Today the verb is rare.^[2] In Maramureș it means not eating anything for a day, especially on a fast day, and it passed from there into Hungarian as aszunál.^[13]

Timeline

• 1560–1561 – in Coresi's Pravila, the first record.^[2][12]
• 1570 – the noun ajunat “fasting” in a Coresi psalter.^[2]
• 1590–1602 – ajunător “one who fasts” in the Codex Sturdzanus.^[2]
• 1682–1686 – in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[14][5]
• 1688 – ajunați in the Bucharest Bible (Esther 4:16).^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (religion) To fast, to eat nothing at all.^[6][14][1]
2. (figurative) To go hungry.^[6][2]

Related words

• ajun
• Aromanian agiun

Usage notes

The old present is ajun; the modern one is ajunez.^[14][12] A regional variant agiuna is also recorded.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. ajun
3. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4581
4. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 9
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. ajuna
6. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 23
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. ajuna
8. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 16
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 71
11. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 30
12. ^ 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. ajuná
13. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2011), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din Maramureș, Baia Mare: Ethnologica, p. s.v. ajuna
14. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 31