conveni

Forms

conveni (first-person singular present convin, third-person singular present convine, past participle convenit, third-person subjunctive convină) 4th conjugation^[1][2] It is conjugated like veni.^[3] Older forms are the present conviu and the subjunctive convie: „Cea ce poate să convie unei inime oneste” “what may suit an honest heart” (Eminescu).^[4][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French convenir, a 19th-century neologism, and at the same time borrowed from Latin conveniō (“to come together, to agree, to suit”).^[2][5][6][1] DELR and Tiktin name only French,^[7][3] Marcu and Maneca Italian as well.^[4] The French verb continues the Latin one,^[8] which is formed from con- and veniō (“to come”).^[7][1]

DELR takes the old sense “to gather” directly from the Latin verb, as a learned loan;^[7] the DA sees it as modelled on German zusammenkommen.^[9] The verb is a doublet of cuveni “to be due, to be fitting”, which Romanian inherited from the same Latin word.^[1][9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record dates from 1845, with the sense “to come to an agreement about something”.^[3] DELR's first record is a text of Negulici of 1846;^[7][5] MDA2 dates the word only from Laurian and Massim's dictionary of 1871.^[7][5]

Semantic evolution

As in French, the verb has two groups of senses: “to suit, to please someone”, said of a thing and constructed with the dative (Nu-mi convine “It doesn't suit me”), and “to agree, to come to terms”, said of people (a conveni asupra prețului “to agree on the price”).^[9][8][10] Șăineanu also records “to admit that something is so”.^[10] The sense “to gather, to meet” was regional in Transylvania and is now obsolete.^[5][7]

The family came in from French and Latin at the same time: conveniență first appears in Iorgovici's list of proposed new words of 1799, convenabil in Negulici's dictionary of 1848.^[7]

Timeline

• 1799 – conveniență (as conveniénție) “fitness” in Iorgovici's list of proposed new words.^[7]
• 1822 – the Transylvanian adaptation conveneluí “to agree” in Bobb's dictionary.^[7]
• 1845 – first record of conveni.^[3]
• 1846 – in a text of Negulici.^[7]
• 1848 – convenabil “suitable” in Negulici's dictionary.^[7]
• 1871 – in Laurian and Massim's dictionary.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, with the dative) To suit, to be convenient or agreeable to someone: Prețul îmi convine “The price suits me”.^[2][5][1]
2. (intransitive) To agree, come to terms with someone.^[2][5]
3. (transitive) To accept, admit.^[2][5]
4. To conclude a convenție, make a pact.^[2][5]
5. (reflexive, Transylvania, obsolete) To gather, meet.^[5][7]

Word family

• convenabil
• conveniență
• neconvenabil
• inconvenabil

Related words

• cuveni
• convenție
• inconvenient
• veni
• French convenir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. 231
3. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. conveni
4. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. conveni
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 501
6. ^ a b 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. conveni
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. conveni
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ 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. conveni
10. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 165