ameți

Forms

ameți (present amețesc, third-person singular amețește, past participle amețit), 4th conjugation.^[1][2] In Banat and Transylvania the present is amet, ameți, amete.^[3][4] Old and regional variants are amăți and amoți.^[5]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *ammattiō, formed on Late Latin mattus (“drunk”), which may come from *maditus, a participle of madeō (“to be wet”).^[5][2][6][1] The DA points to the older form ⟨amăți⟩ and to Italian ammattire (“to go mad”).^[7] DELR still calls the origin uncertain.^[5]

Ciorănescu proposed *ammatteō instead, formed on *mattea (“stick, club”), which survives in măciucă.^[8] He compares Italian ammazzare (“to kill”) and takes the first sense to be “to beat senseless”.^[8] DELR also lists a Latin verb built on Ancient Greek μεθύσκω (methúskō, “to make drunk”), Hasdeu's Latin āmittō and Tiktin's comparison with a Church Slavonic verb for “to rage”.^[5] Tiktin points out that ⟨a-⟩ is a prefix, since dezmeți “to come to one's senses” lacks it.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's homiliary of 1580.^[3] DELR dates the verb and the noun amețeală from the Anonymus Caransebesiensis of about 1650.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The DA defines the verb as losing, or making someone lose, clear consciousness for a moment, so that everything seems to spin.^[7] Figuratively it means “to confuse, to turn someone's head”, and also “to make or get tipsy”.^[7][2] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has the participle amețit.^[9] In colloquial use a o ameți is to do a job sloppily, leaving the impression it was finished.^[4]

Timeline

• 1580 – first record, in Coresi's homiliary.^[3]
• c. 1650 – ameți and amețeală in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[5]
• 1682 – dezmeți “to come to one's senses” in Dosoftei.^[5]
• 1688 – amețit in the Bucharest Bible.^[9]
• 1832 – amețitor “dizzying” in Asachi.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To become or make dizzy: Am amețit de la căldură.^[2][4]
2. (figurative) To bewilder, to confuse: l-a amețit cu vorbe.^[2][4]
3. (also reflexive) To make or become slightly drunk.^[2]
4. (figurative) To deceive.^[4]

Word family

• amețeală
• amețit
• amețitor
• amețitură
• dezamețeală
• dezmeți

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 35
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. ameți
4. ^ 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, 53
5. ^ 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. ameți
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5428
7. ^ 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. ameți
8. ^ a b 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. ameți
9. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Isaiah 24:20