alunga

Forms

alunga (third-person singular present alungă, past participle alungat, third-person subjunctive alunge) 1st conjugation^[1] Old texts also have lunga: Dosoftei's lives of the saints say that a sack full of sand was loaded on her „și trei mile o lungară în goană” “and they drove her three miles at a run”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *allongō (“to drive far off”), a verb formed on longus (“long”) and longē (“far off”).^[4][5][6][1] DELR equates it with Latin ēlongō (“to lengthen; to remove, go far away”).^[4] The DAR and the REW also allow a direct descent from ēlongō.^[6][7] Wiktionary gives both views.^[1]

Its Romance relatives include Old Italian allongare, Catalan allunyar (“to move away”) and French éloigner.^[6][7] Ciorănescu also refers it to lung.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1673, in Dosoftei's psalter, where the verb means “to chase, pursue”.^[2] DELR dates it to 1680, in Dosoftei's Slavonic–Romanian psalter, with the sense “to make someone leave a place, drive out”.^[4] MDA2 also cites Dosoftei as its first record, quoted in Hasdeu's dictionary.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The DA thinks the oldest meaning was “to drive something or someone along a place”, above all along a road; this full sense survives only indirectly, because driving someone away usually also means chasing them.^[8] Two senses grew from it: “to run after, chase” and “to drive away, expel”.^[8][5] Used reflexively, the verb means “to chase one another” and “to rush after someone”; of cattle, it means “to be in heat”.^[3][8]

In the figurative sense one drives away sad thoughts or evil.^[9] A popular saying, parcă-l alungă tătarii “as if the Tatars were chasing him”, is said of someone who is always in a hurry.^[9][8] Romanian derived alungător “who drives away” (1886), alungat “driving away” (1907) and alungătură (1909).^[4]

Timeline

• 1673 – first record, in Dosoftei's psalter, by Tiktin's date.^[2]
• 1680 – “to drive out” in Dosoftei's Slavonic–Romanian psalter, DELR's first record.^[4]
• 1688 – the form alunge in the Bucharest Bible.^[10]
• 1886 – alungător “who drives away”, in Vlahuță.^[4]
• 1907 – the noun alungat, in the DA.^[4]
• 1909 – alungătură.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To force someone to leave a place; to drive away, expel; often figurative, of thoughts or feelings: Vântul a alungat norii.^[5][1][11]
2. To run after someone or something; to chase, pursue.^[5][12]
3. (reflexive) To chase one another; to rush after someone.^[3][8]
4. (reflexive, of cattle) To be in heat.^[3]

Word family

• alungat
• alungător
• alungătură

Related words

• lung
• Latin longus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. alunga
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 47
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. alunga
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 32
6. ^ a b c d 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. alunga
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2853
8. ^ a b c d e 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. alunga
9. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. alunga
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 4 Maccabees 14:17
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. alunga
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 69