amândoi

Forms

amândoi m, feminine amândouă; genitive-dative amânduror (before the noun), amândurora (after it or alone)^[1] The 1953–1993 spelling was amîndoi.^[2] Ioan of Vinț's book of 1689 has the feminine amăndouo: „de amăndouo mă tămădușaște” “heal me of both”.^[3] The genitive amânduror(a) has an analogical /r/, as in tuturor(a).^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *aminduī, from the phrase Latin ambō (“both”) duo (“two”), with the inflection regularised as ⟨ambī duī⟩ and a nasal carried forward from the first syllable.^{[5][4][6][1][2]} The same nasalised form lies behind Italian amendue and Romansh amenduos; Old French andui, Occitan amdui and Catalan abdós continue the phrase too.^[5][4] Tiktin left open how ⟨ambi-⟩ became ⟨amen-⟩.^[7]

The word survives in Aromanian amindoilji and Istro-Romanian amindoi.^{[5][8][9][10]}

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book of 1551–1553, in Matthew 9:17.^[5][7] MDA2's first record is a text of before 1574 quoted by Hasdeu.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The numeral has kept the sense “both, the two together” and is used as an adjective and as a pronoun; a noun after it takes the article: amândoi frații.^[1][7] MDA2 and the DA also give a reciprocal sense, “one with the other, mutually”.^[11][12] Dosoftei combined it with a pronoun: amândoi-vă “both of you”.^[7] A proverb plays on its rhyme with nevoi: amândoi, două nevoi “neither of them is any good”.^[13]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – the first record, in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book (Matthew 9:17).^[5][7]
• before 1574 – MDA2's first record, quoted by Hasdeu.^[11]
• 1642 – the Govora book of homilies.^[3]
• 1689 – the feminine amăndouo in a book by Ioan of Vinț.^[3]
• 1776 – the genitive amândurăra in a Menaion.^[12]

Meanings

Numeral

1. both: the one and the other, the two together: amândouă mâinile both hands; as a pronoun: Amândoi tăceau.^[1][11][2]
2. One with the other, mutually.^[11][12]

Related words

• doi
• ambii
• Aromanian amindoilji
• Latin ambō

Usage notes

MDA2 compares the synonyms ambii and îmbii and the collective numerals tustrei and tuspatru.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 33
2. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c Hasdeu, B. P. (1886–1898), Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae: dicționarul limbei istorice și poporane a românilor, 4 vols. (A–Bărbat), București: Socec, p. s.v. amîndoi
4. ^ 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. amîndoi
5. ^ a b c d e 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. amândoi
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 411
7. ^ 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. amândói
8. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 77
9. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 88
10. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
11. ^ 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, 50
12. ^ a b c 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. amândoi
13. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească