amețit

Forms

amețit m or n (feminine singular amețită, masculine plural amețiți, feminine/neuter plural amețite)^[1]

Etymology

It is the past participle from Romanian ameți (“to make dizzy”), which became an adjective with all the senses of the verb.^{[2][3][4][1][5]}

The verb itself is of uncertain origin.^[6] DELR calls the most likely source Vulgar Latin *ammatiō, a verb formed on mattus (“drunk”), which may go back to madidus (“wet”), the view of the DA, CADE, DEX and the REW.^[6][1] Ciorănescu prefers *ammatteō, from *mattea (“stick, club”), with a first sense “to beat senseless”, and compares Italian ammazzare (“to kill”).^[7][1] Laurian and Massim had thought of Ancient Greek μεθύσκω (methúskō, “to make drunk”), and Hasdeu of āmittō.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the adjective to about 1670, in the Romanian–Latin glossary known as Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[4] Miron Costin's chronicle uses it for drunkenness: the Cossack Timuș set the houses on fire after rising from the table „amețit de vin” “dizzy with wine”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective has kept the two senses of the verb side by side: dizzy or stunned, and tipsy from drink.^[2][5] Klein's dictionary of 1801 glosses it with Latin vertiginem passus “having suffered dizziness” and Hungarian szédült.^[8] In the 19th century writers used it figuratively for someone carried away or confused: Negruzzi's old Socoleanu sinks onto a chair „amețit, răpit” “dazed, enraptured”, and Odobescu's turtle-dove arrives „amețită de bucurie” “giddy with joy”.^[2][9] Baronzi recorded vorbă amețită for an equivocal remark.^[2]

MDA2 adds the sense “absent-minded”, and slang keeps both “slightly drunk” and “distracted”.^[10][11] The neuter form amețit is also a rare abstract noun, “the act of getting dizzy”, first found in Gorovei's collection of riddles in 1898.^[6][10]

Timeline

• c. 1670 – amețit in Anonymus Caransebesiensis, the first record.^[4]
• c. 1675 – amețit de vin “tipsy with wine” in Miron Costin's chronicle.^[2]
• 1688 – the form amețit twice in the Bucharest Bible (Psalm 77:71, Isaiah 24:20).^[12]
• 1801 – Ametzít in Klein's dictionary, glossed “dizzy”.^[8]
• 1898 – amețit as an abstract noun in Gorovei's riddles.^[6][10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. dizzy, giddy: seized by a feeling that everything is spinning;^[5][10][1] (figurative) confused, flustered.^[5][10][1]
2. tipsy, slightly drunk: Se întorcea acasă cam amețit după nuntă.^[5][10][9]
3. (figurative) absent-minded, with one's thoughts elsewhere.^[10][11]

Related words

• ameți
• amețeală
• amețitor

Usage notes

The rare phrase vorbă amețită means an equivocal remark.^[2][10] Regional forms are amoțit and amățit.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. amețit
3. ^ a b Hasdeu, B. P. (1886–1898), Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae: dicționarul limbei istorice și poporane a românilor, 4 vols. (A–Bărbat), București: Socec, p. s.v. amețit
4. ^ 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. amețít
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 35
6. ^ 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. ameți
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 302
9. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 77
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 53
11. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. amețit
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ps 77:71