atingere

Forms

atingere f (plural atingeri)^[1]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of the verb, from Romanian atinge + -re, used as an abstract noun.^[1][2][3]

The verb atinge (“to touch”) is inherited from attingō (“to touch, to reach”), formed from ad- and tangō (“to touch”).^[4][5][1] Hasdeu groups the noun with the shorter-lived synonyms atins, atingătură, atinsătură and atinsură.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is first found in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649, as the Romanian for Slavonic words meaning “touch”, and the other lexicons of the 17th century repeat it.^[7] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has the articled form atingerea.^[8] MDA2's first record is a Moldavian document of before 1814, which asks that a grant be kept „fără atingere sau strămutare” “without infringement or change”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The noun follows the senses of the verb: contact, a light touch, reaching a point, being moved.^[2][9] From the early 19th century it also meant an infringement of a right or a rule, as in the 1814 document, and Șăineanu treats the sense “offence, moral blow” as a Gallicism after French atteinte.^[3][10] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 has the geometrical punct de atingere “point of contact”, a term MDA2 now marks as old.^[11][2] The phrase a intra în atingere cu “to come into contact with” is recorded by DA from Xenopol.^[3][12]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – the verb atinge in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[4]
• 1649 – atingere in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, the first record of the noun.^[7]
• 1688 – atingerea in the Bucharest Bible.^[8]
• before 1814 – fără atingere “without infringement” in a Moldavian document.^[2][3]
• 1870 – punct de atingere “point of contact” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of touching or of being touched; contact, a light blow.^[13][9][1]
2. An infringement or injury to something, such as a right or the unity of a group.^[9][3]
3. The reaching of a point or level, in space, time or a scale of values.^[9][2]
4. (dated, mathematics) In punct de atingere: the point of tangency.^[2][11]

Related words

• atinge
• atins

Usage notes

In the expression a intra (or a fi, a veni, a ajunge) în atingere cu it means to come into contact or into relations with someone or something.^[12][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 123
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. atingere
4. ^ a b 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
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Hasdeu, B. P. (1886–1898), Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae: dicționarul limbei istorice și poporane a românilor, 4 vols. (A–Bărbat), București: Socec, p. s.v. atingere
7. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. atingere
8. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 2 Paralipomena 6:29
9. ^ a b c d e Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 158
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 43
11. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 79
12. ^ a b Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 52
13. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 72