alinta

Forms

alinta (third-person singular present alintă, past participle alintat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

DEX, MDA2, Wiktionary and the DA take it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *allentāre, from lentus (“pliant, flexible; slow”).^[2][3][1][4] Tiktin, Pușcariu, Scriban and the REW hold the same view.^[5][6] The Latin verb lentō (“to bend; to soften”) meant “to make pliant”, and the DA traces from it the sense “to soften, to soothe”.^[4][5] The Romance forms keep the physical sense: Italian allentare (“to slacken”), Sardinian allentare, Old French alenter (“to slow down”) and Occitan alentar.^[7][6] DELR warns that these may be separate Romance derivatives, since all these languages inherited the Latin adjective.^[5]

Candrea and Densusianu preferred, for the meaning, a Latin *allēnitāre, from lēnītō (“to calm, soothe”), the frequentative of lēniō, from lēnis (“gentle, mild”).^[5][7][8] Hasdeu saw it as a frequentative of the verb behind alina “to soothe”.^[5] Ciorănescu thinks it more likely that the Latin verb came to be felt as a frequentative of that verb, though the two had different origins; the DA cites a passage of Dosoftei where they are confused.^[7] DELR calls the etymology uncertain and gives both views.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Dosoftei's verse Psalter of 1673, in the old sense “to calm”: „Vânturilor dzise de-ncetară / Și undelor de se alintară” “he told the winds to cease and the waves to be still”.^[5][9][4] MDA2 cites Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686), where the saint calms the sea with the sign of the cross.^[3][10]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to calm, to still” is found only in Dosoftei.^[4] The modern senses, “to caress” and, in a bad sense, “to spoil a child”, the opposite of bringing it up well, are recorded from the 19th century.^[4][10] The reflexive came to mean “to snuggle up” (in Creangă), “to act like a spoilt child, to make a fuss” and, in Alecsandri, “to sway gently”, as a boat or a horse does.^[4][11] The DA noted that the word was heard almost only in Moldavia.^[4]

A regional verb alinta “to limp slightly”, recorded in 1928, is listed separately by MDA2, which compares alina.^[3]

Timeline

• 1673 – alintară “they calmed down” in Dosoftei's verse Psalter, the first record.^[5][10]
• 1682–1686 – in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[3]
• 1698 – alintătură “caress” in Cantemir.^[5]
• 1870 – alintător “caressing”.^[5]
• 1893 – alint “caress” in Coșbuc.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To caress, to fondle.^[2][1]
2. (transitive and reflexive) To pamper, to spoil, or to be spoilt; to act like a spoilt child.^[2][3]
3. (reflexive, rare) To move slowly and gracefully, to sway.^[12]
4. (obsolete) To calm, to soothe.^[3][9]

Word family

• alint
• alintător
• alintătură

Related words

• alina

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 30
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 43
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. alinta
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. alinta
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 357
7. ^ a b c 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. alinta
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. no. 990
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 49
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. alintá
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 64
12. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 21