aranja

Forms

Verb: present aranjez, third person aranjează, past participle aranjat; first conjugation.^[2][1] An older spelling and pronunciation was arangia.^[3][4] Asachi's first record has the variant aranjui.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French arranger (“to put in order, arrange”), as every dictionary agrees.^{[5][4][6][7][1]} The French verb was formed in French from the prefix a- and ranger (“to range, set in rows”), from rang (“row, rank”), a word of Frankish origin.^[8] DELR traces the noun to Frankish *hring (“circle, ring; a ring of soldiers”), comparing Old English hring, Old High German hring and Old Norse hringr.^[4]

The first record has the variant aranjui, and an older form arangia was both written and pronounced.^[4][3] Ciorănescu compares deranja, from the same French family.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is from Asachi in 1836, in the variant aranjui, and Tiktin also dates the verb to 1836.^[4][7] The first sense was “to put in order”.^[4][7] MDA2's first record is Costinescu's Romanian–French vocabulary of 1870.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From “to put in order” the verb came to mean to settle a matter, a business or a marriage, and, reflexively, to come to terms with someone: Tiktin glosses a se aranja cu creditorii “to reach a settlement with one's creditors”.^[7][3] The DA labels two senses as Gallicisms: the ironic “to fix someone, teach him a lesson” and “to suit someone”, as in asta nu mă aranjează “that does not suit me”.^[3] A musical sense, to arrange a piece for other instruments, was there by the time of the DA, as in French.^[3][8]

Colloquial Romanian later added the senses “to beat up”, “to rig (a game)” and “to sabotage”, and the reflexive “to make a place for oneself in life”.^[6][9][2] The derivatives followed the verb: aranjament “arrangement” is recorded in Asachi in 1836, aranjor “arranger” in 1908, and rearanja “to rearrange” in 1951.^[4]

Timeline

• 1836 – aranjui and aranjament in Asachi, the first records.^[4][7]
• 1870 – aranja in Costinescu's Romanian–French vocabulary.^[6]
• 1908 – aranjator and aranjor “arranger” in the DA.^[4]
• 1951 – rearanja “to rearrange”, modelled on French.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To arrange, put in order.^[2][6]
2. (also reflexive) To tidy one's appearance, to get oneself ready: Se aranjează în fața oglinzii.^[2][6]
3. To make something work properly; to settle or set up a matter, a business, a marriage.^[2][6]
4. (also reflexive) To agree with someone to act in a certain way, to come to terms.^[2][7]
5. (colloquial) To do someone harm, to fix someone; also, to beat up.^[2][6][9]
6. (reflexive) To make one's way in life, to get a good position.^[2][6]
7. (music) To arrange a piece for other instruments or voices.^[2][6]
8. (colloquial) To rig a game or contest; to suit someone;^[6] se aranjează! “it will be sorted out”.^[6]

Word family

• aranjament
• aranjat
• aranjator
• aranjor
• rearanja

Related words

• deranja
• French arranger

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 57
3. ^ a b c d e 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. aranja
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. aranja
5. ^ a b 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. aranja
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 87
7. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. aranja
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. aranja