amesteca

Forms

amesteca (third-person singular present amestecă, past participle amestecat, third-person subjunctive amestece), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ammixticō (“to mix”), a Vulgar Latin verb formed on mixtus (“mixed”), the past participle of misceō (“to mix”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} Tiktin thinks of a simpler *mixticō.^[2] Aromanian has ameastic.^[7][3] Related Romance verbs from the same Vulgar Latin stem are Italian mesticare and Dalmatian mescur.^[8][1][9]

Other explanations make it a Romanian formation: Scriban derived it from a- and mesteca, and Cihac and Hasdeu took its second part to be the verb “to chew”, from Latin masticō (“to chew”).^[2] DELR explains the shorter variant either by loss of the initial vowel or from that simpler Vulgar Latin verb.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the variant mestecară “they mixed” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500).^[2][10] Tiktin dates the verb to 1560, from Bratul's codex, and MDA2 to a text of before 1640.^[11][4]

Semantic evolution

The DA defines the basic sense as uniting things so closely that they can no longer be told apart: of liquids (a amesteca vinul cu apă “to water down wine”), of substances and of peoples.^[6] Reflexive uses gave “to mingle with, to get lost among” and “to meddle in what does not concern one”.^[5][6] Tiktin records “to stir” and “to shuffle (cards)”.^[11]

In Moldavian chronicles it meant “to slander, to intrigue against”: Neculce writes „Ș-au făgăduit că nu-l va amesteca la Poartă pre Dimitrașco Vodă” “and he promised not to slander Prince Dimitrașco at the Porte”.^[11][12] It also meant “to have sexual intercourse” and “to marry”, and Dosoftei has the noun amestecăciune “sexual intercourse”.^[4][2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – mestecară in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2][10]
• 1560 – amesteca in Bratul's codex.^[11]
• 1566 – the noun meastec, later amestec, in Coresi.^[2]
• 1567–1568 – mestecătură, later amestecătură “mixture”.^[2]
• 1580 – mestecător “intriguer” in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[2]
• before 1640 – MDA2's first record.^[4]
• 1682 – amestecăciune “sexual intercourse” in Dosoftei.^[2]
• 1688 – amestecam “I mingled (my drink with weeping)” in the Bucharest Bible, Psalm 101:10.^[11][13]
• 1825 – amestecător “mixing tool” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To mix: to combine things into a mixture;^[1] (reflexive) to mix, to blend.^[5][1]
2. To jumble, to throw things into disorder; to shuffle cards.^[5][11]
3. To stir.^[11][1]
4. (reflexive, of groups) To mingle; to get lost among others.^[5]
5. (reflexive) To meddle, to interfere uninvited in an action or a conversation.^[5]
6. (colloquial) To involve someone in an unwelcome affair.^[14]
7. (obsolete, Moldavia) To slander, to intrigue against someone.^[12][3]

Word family

• amestec
• amestecat
• amestecăciune
• amestecător
• amestecătură
• amestecuș
• dezamesteca
• neamestec
• amestecare

Related words

• mesteca
• mistreț
• Aromanian ameastic
• Latin mixtus

Usage notes

A se amesteca unde nu-i fierbe oala “to meddle where one's pot is not boiling” means to poke one's nose into what is none of one's business.^[15]

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 h i j k l 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. amesteca
3. ^ 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. amesteca
4. ^ a b c d 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 DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 35
6. ^ 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. amesteca
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 92
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5617
10. ^ 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 105:34
11. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. amestecá
12. ^ a b Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 52
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ps 101:10
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. amesteca
15. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 25