asasina

Forms

asasina (third-person singular present asasinează, past participle asasinat), first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French assassiner.^[2][3][4][1] The DA and the DN also name Italian assassinare.^[5][6] The French verb is formed on assassin,^[1] borrowed in the 16th century from Italian assassino.^[7] DELR traces the Italian word to an Arabic plural for “hashish smokers”, the name given to a Muslim sect of Syria that killed Christian leaders in the time of the Crusades;^[2] Wiktionary gives Arabic حَشَّاشِين (ḥaššāšīn, “hashish users”) or another Arabic word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and DELR date the verb from 1840, in the French–Romanian vocabulary of Poenaru, Aaron and Hill, with the sense “to murder treacherously”.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The noun asasin came first, recorded from 1801, and the derivatives followed the verb: asasinat “murder” from 1847, asasinator from 1859 and asasinant “annoying” from 1870.^[2] The DA labelled the verb a Gallicism.^[5] The figurative sense “to bore or exasperate someone” is recorded by Șăineanu and CADE, as in boring someone with one's verses.^[8][9][5]

Timeline

• 1801 – the noun asasin, as assasén.^[2]
• 1840 – the verb, in the vocabulary of Poenaru, Aaron and Hill.^[2][4]
• 1847 – asasinat “murder” in Heliade-Rădulescu.^[2]
• 1870 – asasinant “annoying” in Costinescu.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To assassinate, to murder someone with premeditation.^[3][1]
2. (figurative, colloquial) To bore, annoy or wear someone out with insistence: Ne asasinează cu poveștile lui.^[3][5]

Word family

• asasinat
• asasinator

Related words

• asasin

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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” (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. asasin
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 65
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. asasina
5. ^ 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. asasina
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 38
9. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească