cinge

Forms

cinge (third-person singular present cinge, past participle cins, third-person subjunctive cingă), 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cingō (“to gird, surround”).^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu also cites Pușcariu and the DA for it.^[2]

The verb survives south of the Danube: Aromanian țingu and Megleno-Romanian nțing.^[2][5] Its Romance cognates include Italian cingere, French ceindre, Occitan cenher, Catalan cenyir, Spanish ceñir and Portuguese cingir.^[2][4]

In Romanian the prefixed încinge has replaced it; that verb is usually traced to incingō, but Ciorănescu thinks it could also be a Romanian compound.^[2] It is sometimes mixed up with its homonym meaning “to heat”, which comes from incendō.^[2][6] Ciorănescu also compares chingă.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Candrea and Densusianu cite the verb from Dosoftei's verse psalter, with the senses “to gird” and “to surround”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Ciorănescu calls the simple verb obsolete.^[2] It lived on as a poetic word: Bălcescu's call „cinge-ți coapsa, o țara mea!” “gird your loins, o my country!” is quoted by Șăineanu, Damé and Tiktin.^[7][8][9] The CADE marks it obsolete, and the DA and DLRLC only refer to încinge.^[10][11][12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic, poetic) to gird, to wrap round the waist; the same as încinge.^[2][7][1]
2. (archaic) to surround, to encircle; to guard.^[2][1]

Word family

• cingătoare
• descinge

Related words

• încinge
• chingă
• Aromanian țingu

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. cinge
3. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. cinge
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1924
5. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
6. ^ 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. încinge
7. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 130
8. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. cinge
9. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. încinge
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. cinge
11. ^ 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. cinge
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 424