amâna

Forms

amâna (third-person singular present amână, past participle amânat) 1st conjugation^[1] Besides amân, the first person of the present has a regional amâi (Muntenia) and a rare amânez; the subjunctive să amâie is colloquial.^[2][3] Until 1993 it was spelled amîna.^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian a- + mâine (“tomorrow”), from the older form mâne: literally “to put off to tomorrow”.^[4][2][5][1] Ciorănescu sets out two ways the formation may have come about: from a Latin phrase of the type Vulgar Latin *ad māne, the view of Pușcariu and the REW, or from a Romanian adverb *amâne.^[6] Tiktin likewise connects the verb with the Latin word for “morning, tomorrow”.^[3]

The verb survives in Aromanian amãn (“to be late, to postpone”).^[6][7][1] Ciorănescu compares French ajourner, made in the same way from “day”, and Philippide compared Albanian mënoń (“to delay”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb appears in the psalters of the 16th century, in its older intransitive sense “to tarry, to delay”: Coresi's Psalter of 1570 has „Dumnezeul mieu, nu amâna!” “my God, do not tarry!” (Psalm 39:24).^[8][3] MDA2 gives the Psaltirea Scheiană as its first record.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive sense “to be slow, to delay” of the psalters is now dated, and it is the usual sense of the Aromanian verb.^[2][3] The transitive sense “to put something off to a later time” became the main one, with a legal use for adjourning a trial or a hearing.^[2][4] Said of a person, the verb means to keep someone waiting with promises, de azi pe mâine “from one day to the next”.^[4][3] An old sense was to order someone to come back or do something later.^[2]

Ciorănescu lists the derivatives amânăcios “late, slow” (obsolete) and the Banat adverb amânat “late”.^[6]

Timeline

• 1570 – nu amâna “do not tarry” in Coresi's Psalter (Psalm 39:24).^[8][3]
• c. 1573-1578 – the Psaltirea Scheiană, in Psalms 39:24 and 69:7.^[9][2]
• 1893–1895 – Damé glosses it with French ajourner, remettre, surseoir.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To postpone, to put off: to carry out an action at a later moment than first set; of a trial or meeting, to adjourn.^[4][2][1]
2. (transitive) To keep someone waiting, to put off with promises.^[4][2]
3. (dated, intransitive) To delay, to be slow.^[2][3]

Related words

• mâine
• Aromanian amãn

Usage notes

A proverb quoted by Tiktin from Jipescu says not to put off to tomorrow the work in hand: Lucrul din mână nu-l amâna pe mâine.^[3]

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” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 50
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. amâna
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 33
5. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 20
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. amîna
7. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. s.v. amãn
8. ^ 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 39:24
9. ^ 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 69:7
10. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. 1