amenința

Forms

amenința (third-person singular present amenință, past participle amenințat) 1st conjugation^[1] amelița: Ureche wrote that other chroniclers „nemică n-au amelițat de această domnie” “have mentioned nothing of this reign”.^[2] Old variants also include amerința, amelința, menința and melița.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is generally derived as inherited from Vulgar Latin *ammināciāre (“to threaten”), though DELR calls the etymology uncertain.^{[3][5][4][6][1]} The Latin verb is formed on minācia (“threat”), from mināx (“threatening”), from minor (“to threaten”), from minae (“projecting points; threats”).^[3][4] The compound survives in Spanish amenazar, Portuguese ameaçar and Catalan amenaçar, the simple verb in Italian minacciare and French menacer.^[3][5][1] The nasal of the second syllable spread from the first, and amerința and amelința arose by dissimilation.^[3][7]

The meaning is the difficulty: in the old language the verb meant “to make a sign, to give an order by a gesture” or “to mention”, and the sense “to threaten” is rare before the end of the 17th century.^[3][7] The DA supposed a second Latin verb, *amminiciāre, with an older sense “to raise the hand”;^[8] DELR rejects this because that sense of the Latin verb is not recorded, and suggests a shift from “to point to a future harm” to “to point to something to come”.^[3][7] Other proposals are Latin minitor (“to threaten”), defended by Philippide, and a form built on ēminēns (“projecting”).^[5][3] Ciorănescu derived the sense “to mention” of amelița from Modern Greek μελετώ (meletó), which DELR finds improbable.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1581, in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură, under the form amerința.^[3][2] DA quotes, through Hasdeu, a Coresi passage in which Christ commands the sea and a demon, and there amerința means “to give an order”.^[7] MDA2 cites the same Coresi text through Hasdeu and dates it 1564.^[4]

Semantic evolution

DA sees the basic sense as “to raise the hand and make a sign with it”.^[7] Old texts use the verb for a commanding gesture, for provoking someone by winks (Dosoftei's psalter: „meliță cu ochii”), and, in the Moldavian chronicles, for mentioning something.^[7][2][4] The sense “to threaten” spread only from the late 17th century.^[3] Șăineanu took the modern sense “to be about to” as modelled on French menacer.^[8]

The family grew from the 17th century: melițală “threatening” is recorded in 1683, amelățătură in Cantemir (1717–1723) and amenințător “threatening” in 1800.^[3]

Timeline

• 1581 – amerința in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1683 – the noun melițală in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[3]
• 1717–1723 – amelățătură “threat” in Cantemir's Hronic.^[3]
• 1800 – amerințător “threatening”.^[3]
• 1907 – the noun amenințat “threatening”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To threaten: to show the intention of harming someone, to frighten him or to obtain something.^[6][4][1]
2. To make a threatening gesture: îl amenința cu pumnul “he shook his fist at him”.^[6][9]
3. To be a danger to someone or something.^[6][4]
4. To be about to, to be on the point of: acoperișul amenință să se prăbușească “the roof threatens to collapse”.^[6]
5. (rare) To foreshadow something bad.^[6]
6. (obsolete) To make a commanding gesture; to provoke someone with looks; to mention.^[4][2]

Word family

• amenințător
• amenințătură
• amenințeală
• amenințare

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. amenința
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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. amenința
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 52
5. ^ 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. amenința
6. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 35
7. ^ a b c d e f 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. amenința
8. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 21
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 75