amuți

Forms

amuți (third-person singular present amuțește, past participle amuțit) 4th conjugation^[1] Old texts also have a present amut; the Banat dictionary known as the Anonymus Caransebesiensis gives the first person amút.^[2][3] Coresi's psalter of 1570 has the past amuții “I became mute” in Psalm 38.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ammūtīre, formed on Latin mūtus (“mute”) with the prefix ad-;^[5][2][3] Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and the DA give this etymon, and DEX, MDA2 and Tiktin agree.^[6][5][2][3] Wiktionary also mentions obmūtēscō (“to become mute”) as a model and a formation within Romanian on mut.^[1]

The verb survives in Aromanian amutsãscu.^[6][7][8] Ciorănescu compares Italian ammutire.^[6] Wiktionary's Italian entry derives that verb within Italian from muto.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in Psalm 68.^[9] Tiktin dates it to the 16th-century Psaltirea Scheiană, which is also MDA2's first record.^[3][2] The meaning in the psalters is “to become mute, to fall silent”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The old language also used the verb transitively, “to silence, to make mute”, and MDA2 keeps the phrase a amuți pe cineva (de gură) “to make someone lose speech or fall silent”, by a spell or by strong arguments.^[3][2] In the modern language the figurative sense “to stop speaking; to quieten, to cease” stands beside the literal one, and the verb is used of voices, noises and instruments that fall silent.^[5][10]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – first record, in Psalm 68 of the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[9]
• 1570 – amuții in Coresi's psalter.^[4]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2][3]
• c. 1660 – forms of the verb in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons.^[11]
• 1688 – amuți in the Bucharest Bible.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To lose the power of speech; to become mute.^[5][2][1]
2. (intransitive, figurative) To stop speaking, to fall silent; to quieten down, to cease: Toată sala a amuțit.^[5][13]

Word family

• amuțeală

Related words

• mut
• asurzi
• Aromanian amutsãscu
• Latin mūtus

Usage notes

MDA2 also records a separate regional amuți, a variant of asmuța “to set dogs on”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 58
3. ^ 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. amuțí
4. ^ 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 38:13
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 38
6. ^ 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. amuți
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 97
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 63
9. ^ 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 68:4
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. amuți
11. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. amuți
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Matthew 22:12
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. amuți