amin

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic аминъ (aminŭ), the word of the Slavonic church books.^[1][2][3][4] Ciorănescu and MDA2 give Modern Greek αμήν (amín) as a second source.^[5][6] The Slavonic word is from Ancient Greek ἀμήν (amḗn, “verily, so be it”),^[7][8] itself from Biblical Hebrew אָמֵן (āmēn, “truly, surely”), used to confirm the end of a speech or a prayer.^[1][4] The rare variant amen is the learned Latin amen.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book of 1551–1553.^[1] The Codicele Voronețean has the form amină at the end of an epistle: „Pace voao de Hristos Isus, amină!” “Peace to you in Christ Jesus, amen!”^[6][3][9] Dosoftei uses the rarer form ámen.^[3][1]

Semantic evolution

From the language of the church the word passed into everyday speech as an exclamation at the end of a sentence; in a curse or a wish it means “so be it”, and Alecsandri's Zamfira answers a blessing with Amin și 'ntr-un ceas bun!.^[3][10] A zice amin la toate is to accept everything without thinking or objecting.^[3][6]

As a noun it formed phrases of time: în veci de amin “for ever”, found in a Moldavian document of 1683, până la amin “to the end”, and nici la amin, cât aminul “never, not at all”.^[3][6] In familiar speech it also means “that's it, it's over”.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – first record, in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book.^[1]
• c. 1563–1583 – amină in the Codicele Voronețean.^[6][3]
• 1683 – în veci de amin “for ever” in a Moldavian document.^[3]
• 1688 – used more than a hundred times in the Bucharest Bible.^[12]

Meanings

Interjection

1. amen: “truly, so be it”, the closing formula of prayers and religious texts.^[2][6]
2. (colloquial) That's it, it's over; goodbye to something: Dacă ai pierdut biletul, amin!^[2][13]

Noun

1. (popular, in phrases) cât(u-i) aminul, până (sau nici) la amin: never, not at all.^[2][6]

Related words

• Ancient Greek ἀμήν (amḗn)

Usage notes

In the Banat Tiktin records a separate plant name amin “caraway” (Carum carvi), which he explains as a folk-etymological reshaping after this word.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. amin
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 36
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. amin
4. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ 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. amin
6. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 55
7. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. 1, 76
8. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. amin
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 78
11. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. amin
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 1 Paralipomenon 16:36
13. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 26
14. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. amín 2