dăunos

Forms

dăunos m or n (feminine singular dăunoasă, masculine plural dăunoși, feminine/neuter plural dăunoase)^[1]

Etymology

The dictionaries mostly explain it as formed from Romanian daună (“damage”) + -os, with the adjective suffix.^[2][3][4][1] daună is itself a learned word, from Latin damnum (“damage, loss”), first recorded in 1816 and adapted to Romanian with /mn/ > /un/ as in the inherited scaun from scamnum.^[5]

DELR doubts this for the older sense “greedy”, which it treats under its own headword, as a rare Transylvanian word of uncertain origin.^[6] It notes the DA's view that this word continues Latin damnōsus (“causing loss, ruinous”), with the meaning moving from “harmful” to “grasping, covetous of other people's goods” and then to “greedy”, and the view of the Lexicon de la Buda (below), as if the meaning had gone from “hollow, bottomless” to “eating without stop”.^[6] A derivative of that noun would be too late for it, DELR argues, since that noun is a neologism, and a romanized form of the Latin adjective would have kept the sense “harmful”.^[6] Tiktin calls the word of unknown origin and cites the DA's etymology from Latin.^[7] The Latin adjective is formed on that noun with the suffix -ōsus.^[8]

The Lexicon de la Buda itself proposed Spanish ganoso (“desirous”), with /g/ changed to /d/, or the Romanian găunos “hollow” or găuros.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Klein's dictionary of 1801 already lists Daunos, with a cross-reference to Corbicios.^[10] DELR, MDA2 and Tiktin date the word to the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825,^[6][4][7] which glosses it with Latin avidus and cupidus, “very eager, greedy, longing for everything at once”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The sense “greedy” is the oldest one recorded;^[4][9] MDA2 lists four senses: causing loss, harmful, coveting the goods of others, and greedy.^[4][9] Tiktin adds “stubborn, resolute” for Odobescu's description of Lady Chiajna, the mother of Prince Petru Șchiopul, as „muiere capeșă și dăunoasă” “a capable and grasping woman”.^[7][3][11]

Modern dictionaries give “harmful” first, with “greedy” as an extension, and label the word rare.^[2][11] Wiktionary marks it rare and dated.^[1]

Timeline

• 1801 – Daunos in Klein's dictionary.^[10]
• 1816 – the noun daună, first as the plural damne, in Maior.^[5]
• 1825 – dăunos “greedy” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[6][9]
• 1896 – Odobescu calls Lady Chiajna dăunoasă.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (rare) harmful, causing damage or loss; the same as dăunător.^[2][3][4][1]
2. (rare, by extension) greedy, coveting what belongs to others.^[2][4][11]

Related words

• daună
• dăuna
• dăunător
• Latin damnōsus

Usage notes

It is pronounced in three syllables, dă-u-nos.^[2][3] DELR keeps two headwords, dăunos¹ “greedy” of uncertain origin and dăunos² “harmful”, the derivative of daună;^[6][2][4] DEX, DLR and MDA2 treat them as one word.^[6][2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 273
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dăunos
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 607
5. ^ 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. daună
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. dăunos
7. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dăunos
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. damnōsus
9. ^ a b c d e Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 166
10. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 347
11. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 20