atârna

Forms

atârna (third-person singular present atârnă, past participle atârnat, third-person subjunctive atârne) 1st conjugation^[1] Between 1953 and 1993 the word was spelled atîrna.^[1][2]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[3][4] DEX, DLRM, NODEX and MDA2 derive it from Romanian a- + târn, from târn (“thorn, bramble”), which DELR takes from Old Church Slavonic трънъ (trŭnŭ, “thorn”).^{[5][6][7][8][3][9]} The DA explained it as a shepherds' word: wool was first said to stay caught on thorns, whence “to stay caught on something” and then “to hang”, with the influence of acăța “to hook”.^[10][3] Ciorănescu finds the link between the two ideas weak, and DELR notes that the derivatives do not follow the conjugation such a formation would lead one to expect.^[4][3] Others start from târnă (“basket carried on the shoulder”) (Hasdeu, Șăineanu, Scriban), comparing atăgârța “to hang” from tăgârță “bag”.^[3][4]

Ciorănescu thought it possible that it is inherited, from Latin tornō (“to turn”) with ad-, as in înturna and French détourner: the sound changes are hard to explain, but the meaning “to turn aside” would account for the senses, and for the derivative atârnătoare “sheepfold”, better than the other views.^[4] DELR adds *attraganō, from the verb behind trăgăna, derived from trahō (“to pull”) (REW 8837), with a development “to pull one way” > “to pull down”, and R. Merlo's *attrabenō (“to fasten to a beam”) (2019), from trabs (“beam”).^[3] Older proposals are Cihac's Hungarian átér (“to stretch over”), Giuglea's *adtrutinō from trutina (“balance”), and Diculescu's Greek source, a verb related to Ancient Greek ἀρτάω (artáō, “to hang”) and ἀρτάνη (artánē, “noose”);^[3][4] Ciorănescu calls the last two fanciful.^[3][4]

The sense “to depend” is modelled on Latin dēpendeō, French dépendre and German abhängen.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the Mărgăritare of 1691, a century before the DA thought the word entered the written language.^[3][10] Tiktin dates it to 1703.^[11]

Semantic evolution

DELR lists a wide range of senses: to hang, to hang something up, to cling to someone and, figuratively, to beg insistently, to bend under a load, to weigh heavily on the scales and so to matter, to depend, and in the old language to hesitate or delay and to result from.^[3] Tiktin quotes a se atârna “to waver, to hesitate” from a chronicle, and the scales of a battle that nu atârna “did not tip” either way.^[11] The DA judged that the general sense “to hang” was not old, and noted that the word was spreading at the expense of its synonyms acăța and anina.^[10] In slang it means “to arrest”.^[12]

Several 19th-century derivatives are calques: atârnător “dependent” (1804) after Latin dependens, French dépendant and German abhängend, neatârnat “independent” (1826) and neatârnare “independence” (1830) after French indépendance and German Unabhängigkeit.^[3] Transylvanian târnaț “balcony” may be a back-formation from the plural atârnați “posts holding the eaves”;^[4][3] Cihac and Scriban take it from Hungarian tornác, which Ciorănescu thinks is itself borrowed from Romanian.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1691 – atârna in the Mărgăritare, the first record.^[3]
• 1691–1697 – the hapax atârnățăl “rather heavy” in T. Corbea.^[3]
• 1703 – Tiktin's first record.^[11]
• 1804 – atârnător “dependent”.^[3]
• 1826 – neatârnat “independent”.^[3]
• 1830 – neatârnare “independence”.^[3]
• 1857 – atârnătură “thing that hangs” in Polizu's dictionary.^[3]
• 1887 – atârnătoare “place where shepherds hang their things; sheepfold” in Hasdeu.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To hang, to be suspended from something and fall freely: Haina atârnă în cui.^[5][8]
2. (transitive) To hang up, to suspend from a hook or a nail: A atârnat tabloul pe perete.^[5][8]
3. (reflexive) To cling to someone or something;^[5][8] (figurative) to beg someone insistently.^[5][8]
4. (intransitive) To droop, to bend towards the ground under a load or from weakness.^[5][8]
5. (intransitive) To weigh (a lot); (figurative) to matter, to be of great worth.^[5][8]
6. (intransitive, with de) To depend on someone or something: Totul atârnă de vreme.^[5][8]
7. (reflexive, obsolete) To waver, to hesitate.^[3][8][1]
8. (slang, transitive) To arrest.^[12]

Word family

• atârnat
• atârnătoare
• atârnătură
• neatârnare
• neatârnat
• atârnare
• atârnător

Related words

• agăța
• târn
• anina

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 159
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v 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. atârna
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. atîrna
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. 71
6. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 51
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. atârna
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 120
9. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
10. ^ a b c 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. atârna
11. ^ 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. atârna
12. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. atârna