ajunge

Forms

ajunge (present ajung, third-person singular ajunge, past participle ajuns, subjunctive să ajungă), third conjugation^[1][2] A regional variant is agiunge; the old simple past was ajunșu.^[2] It occurs in folk verse: „Pe harap îl agiungea” “he caught up with the Moor”.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin adiungō (“to join to, add”), formed from ad- and iungō (“to join”), from Proto-Indo-European *yewg-.^[4][5][2][1] MDA2 also names Italian aggiungere and French adjoindre beside the Latin verb.^[2]

The verb survives in Aromanian as agiungu and in Megleno-Romanian as jung.^[6][7][4] Its Romance cognates include the Italian verb, Occitan ajonher and Old French ajoindre.^[4][8] The REW notes that the sense “to catch up with”, not “to add”, is shared by Romanian with some northern Italian and Poitevin dialects.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to about 1500, in the Hurmuzaki Psalter.^[5] In the Codicele Voronețean (16th century) the verb renders “to reach” a place in Acts 27:12.^[3] MDA2 has the Codicele Voronețean as its first record.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From Latin “to join, add” the Romanian verb moved to “to catch up with” someone ahead, “to arrive, reach” a place or a point in time, then to “to be enough” and “to become”.^[4][5] The reflexive once meant “to come to an agreement”, a sense DELR labels dated.^[5][4]

Many phrases speak of time catching up: l-a ajuns zilele “his days have run out”, and in curses să n-ajungi ziua de mâine! “may you not live to see tomorrow!”.^[3][2] Used alone, ajunge! means “enough!”.^[1] Derivatives include neajungere “poverty” (1642), ajunsătură “secret agreement, bribe” (1754), neajuns “lack, trouble” (1771) and the adverb îndeajuns “enough”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – first record, in the Hurmuzaki Psalter.^[5]
• 16th century – “to reach” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3][2]
• 1642 – neajungere “poverty, insufficiency”.^[5]
• 1649 – Mardarie's lexicon uses forms of the verb for Slavonic words for “to reach” and “to suffice”.^[9]
• 1691–1697 – ajungător “sufficient” in Teodor Corbea.^[5]
• 1754 – ajunsătură “secret agreement, bribe”.^[5]
• 1771 – neajuns “lack, trouble”.^[5]
• 1794–1821 – îndeajuns “enough” in Budai-Deleanu.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To arrive at a place, to reach the end of a journey.^[10][1]
2. (transitive) To catch up with a person or vehicle that is ahead;^[10][1] (figurative) to equal someone.^[10][1]
3. (transitive) To hit or strike;^[10] (figurative) of a misfortune or a feeling, to befall or overcome someone.^[10]
4. (intransitive) To extend as far as; to reach something high or far away.^[10]
5. (intransitive) To suffice, to be enough; as an exclamation, ajunge! “enough!”.^[4][1]
6. (copulative) To become: A ajuns medic. “He became a doctor.”^[10][1]
7. (reflexive, dated) To come to an agreement.^[5][10]

Word family

• ajuns
• ajunsătură
• îndeajuns
• neajungere
• neajuns
• neajunsie
• ajungere

Related words

• Aromanian agiungu
• Latin adiungō

Usage notes

Fixed expressions include a ajunge departe “to go far, succeed” and a ajunge la mal “to get through one's difficulties”.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 31
3. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ajunge
4. ^ 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. ajunge
5. ^ 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. ajunge
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 71
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 162
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 171
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. ajunge
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 23