atinge

Forms

atinge (third-person singular present atinge, past participle atins, third-person subjunctive atingă) 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin attingō (“to touch, reach”), formed from ad- and tangō (“to touch”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Italian attingere continues the same verb, while French atteindre and Catalan atanyer go back to Vulgar Latin *attangō, with the vowel of the simple verb restored.^[3][6] DELR explains the sense “to move, impress” as taken from French toucher.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to about 1500, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki; its form there is atinge, in Psalm 143:6, with the sense “to touch”.^[2][7] Tiktin first cites it from the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From the physical sense of touching lightly, the verb came to mean reaching a place, a time or a limit, harming or offending someone, moving someone emotionally, and mentioning a subject in passing.^[2][9] In the old language the reflexive meant to concern, or to resemble.^[2] Slang adds “to beat” and “to lay hands on, appropriate”.^[3][9] Among its derivatives, atinsură “touch” is recorded in 1643 and atingător “concerning; offensive; touching” in 1785.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – atinge “touch” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2][7]
• 1570 – atingeți in Coresi's psalter.^[10]
• 1643 – atinsură “touch” in Varlaam's Cazania.^[2]
• c. 1650 – atinsătură in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[2]
• 1785 – atingător.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To touch: to come into light or passing contact with something.^[9][1][4]
2. (transitive) To strike lightly;^[9] (figurative) to harm, damage or offend; to move or impress.^[9]
3. (reflexive, with de) To lay hands on something in order to profit from it: nu s-a atins de banii lor “he didn't touch their money”.^[9][1]
4. (transitive) To mention something in passing.^[9]
5. (transitive) To reach a certain distance, time or limit; to attain a goal.^[9][1]

Word family

• atingător
• atins
• atinsătură
• atinsură
• atingere

Related words

• Latin attingō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. atinge
3. ^ 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. atinge
4. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 123
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 768
7. ^ 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 143:6
8. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. atinge
9. ^ 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. 72
10. ^ 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 104:15