cina

Forms

cina (third-person singular present cinează, past participle cinat) 1st conjugation^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cēnō (“to dine”).^{[3][4][5][2][6][7]} The Latin verb is formed on cēna (“dinner”), which gave the Romanian noun cină.^[8][4] DELR calls the verb pan-Romance.^[4]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian țin, Megleno-Romanian țin and Istro-Romanian cir.^[3][4] The Romance cognates include Italian cenare, Occitan cenar, Catalan cenar, Spanish cenar and Portuguese cear.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and DELR date the first record to 1648, Luke 17:8 in the New Testament of that year, with the sense “to have supper”.^[6][4] MDA2's first record is a text written before 1675: „iar sluga-i gătiia masa, de să cineze” “and the servant made the table ready for him to dine”.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

The verb has kept the sense “to eat the evening meal”, used on its own or with the food as object.^[7][2] A transitive sense “to give someone supper” is recorded but rare.^[5][6] The DA noted in the 1910s that in parts of the Old Kingdom, especially in towns, the verb was rare and receding before a mânca seara “to eat in the evening”, and among French speakers before a prânzi, used on the model of French dîner, a lua masa and a supa; some educated speakers resisted this and kept cina and cină.^[7] The DLRLC still labels it mainly Transylvanian.^[9]

Timeline

• 1648 – cina in the New Testament (Luke 17:8), the first record.^[6][4]
• before 1675 – să cineze “that he might dine”, MDA2's first record.^[5]
• 1679 – the participle cinat used as a noun “meal” in Dosoftei.^[10][4]
• 1688 – „după ce au cinat” “after supper” in the Bucharest Bible (Luke 22:20).^[6]
• 1901 – the derivative cinui “to dine; to give supper”.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To dine, to have supper: to eat the evening meal; transitively, to eat something for supper.^[2][5][1]
2. (rare, obsolete) To give someone supper.^[5][6]

Word family

• cinat

Related words

• cină
• cinui
• Aromanian țin
• Latin cēnō

Usage notes

The spelling cina is also the articled form of the noun cină, “the supper”: cina e gata “supper is ready”.^[2][4] The present has the suffix -ez: cinez, cinează.^[2][6]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 184
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. cina
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. cină
5. ^ 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, 397
6. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ciná
7. ^ 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. cina
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 422
10. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cinát