astrânge

Forms

astrânge (third-person singular present astrânge, past participle astrâns, third-person subjunctive astrângă), third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

MDA2 and CADE take it as inherited from Latin astringō (“to bind together”).^[2][3] DLRLV instead analyses it as a formation from Romanian a- + strânge.^[4] The DA gives both views, with the prefix in the sense “together”, and compares the neologism astringent.^[5] Wiktionary too gives both.^[1] The Latin verb is ad- with stringō (“to draw tight”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record quoted is from Dosoftei's synaxarion: „astrânsă toată bogata ei bogăție și o au dat pre mâna lui” “she gathered all her great wealth and put it into his hands”.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The DA records it in Banat and Transylvania, and earlier in Moldavia, with the basic sense “to gather together”.^[5] From it come “to pick up from the ground”, “to heap up, save” and “to unite”; folk poetry and Banat speech use it for gathering firewood or a scattered band.^[5][2] A proverb says that whoever does not save in youth will have nothing to eat in old age: „Cine nu astrânge la tinerețe, nu va avea ce mânca la bătrânețe”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1682-1686 – Dosoftei's synaxarion (Viața și petrecerea sfinților), recorded in DLRLV's dictionary of the old literary language.^[4]
• 1913 – the DA records it in Banat and Transylvania.^[5]
• 1931 – CADE marks it as a Banat word.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (regional) To gather, to collect together.^[2][5][1]
2. (regional) To pick up something from the ground.^[2]
3. (regional) To save, to put money aside.^[2]
4. (regional) To unite, to bring together.^[2]

Related words

• strânge
• astringent

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 115
3. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. astrânge
4. ^ a b c Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 59
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. astrânge