amintire

Forms

amintire f (plural amintiri)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian aminti (“to remember”) + -re: the long infinitive of the verb, which became an abstract noun.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The verb is formed on the adverb aminte, itself made of the preposition a and minte (“mind”).^[3][3] Hasdeu saw it as a word made in popular speech and well rooted by his time.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1836, in Costache Negruzzi's story O alergare de cai: „cinstesc pe bătrâne în amintirea trecutei lor frumuseți” “I honour old women in memory of their past beauty”.^[4][6][2] Tiktin's first record of the verb aminti is later, from 1852.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The first senses were “recollection, remembrance” and “mention”: Creangă wrote of places „vrednice de amintire” “worthy of mention”.^[2][4] Hasdeu distinguished it from the older aducere-aminte: that is a clear memory, even of something recent, while amintire is a recollection of things long past or seen only dimly.^[6] Șăineanu's dictionary repeats this, glossing it “remembering, not clearly enough”.^[8]

From the act of remembering the word passed to what is remembered, an image kept in the mind, and to an object that brings someone to mind, a keepsake (suvenir).^[5][9] In the plural it names a literary genre close to memoirs.^[5][3]

Timeline

• 1836 – in Costache Negruzzi, “remembrance”.^[4][6]
• 1852 – the verb aminti.^[7]
• 1862 – in Pontbriant's dictionary, “memory, souvenir”.^[10]
• 1872 – the edition of Negruzzi's writings that MDA2 cites as its first record.^[3]
• 1886 – in Barcianu's dictionary, “remembrance, mention”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of remembering, recollection.^[5][1] În amintirea cuiva: in memory of someone.^[5][1]
2. A memory, an image kept in the mind.^[5][3]
3. An object that reminds one of someone or something, a keepsake.^[5][12]
4. (plural) A literary genre close to memoirs, in which the writer tells of his own life.^[5][3]
5. (dated) A mention.^[2][13]

Related words

• aminte
• aducere-aminte
• minte

Usage notes

Wiktionary and MDA2 also list an adverb amintíre, one of the many variants of altminteri “otherwise”, which has a separate origin.^[1][3][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. amintire
3. ^ 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, 55
4. ^ 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. amintire
5. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 37
6. ^ a b c d Hasdeu, B. P. (1886–1898), Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae: dicționarul limbei istorice și poporane a românilor, 4 vols. (A–Bărbat), București: Socec, p. s.v. amintire
7. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. aminti
8. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 22
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 96
10. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 29
11. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 24
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. amintire
13. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. amintire
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 46