dezamăgi

Forms

a dezamăgi (third-person singular present dezamăgește, past participle dezamăgit), 4th conjugation^[1] The old spelling desamăgi is found in Negulici: „ca desamăgită de lume, nemulțumită de dânsa” “as if disillusioned with the world, discontented with it”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian dez- + amăgi “to deceive”, with the reversive prefix.^{[4][3][2][5][1]} DELR sees it as a calque of French désillusionner and German enttäuschen; another view it cites takes it as modelled on deziluziona.^[6]

The base verb is of disputed origin: Densusianu, CADE and DEX derive it from Vulgar Latin *ammagīre, others directly from Ancient Greek μαγεύω (mageúō, “to practise magic”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is in Gherasim's Șt. stihii of 1786–1788, with the variant disamăgi.^[6] MDA2 dates it to 1818, in Petru Maior's translation of Fénelon's Telemachus: „Răzvrătiți pre toți aceia carii l-ar fi putut dezamăgi” “they stirred up all those who could have undeceived him”.^[3][2] The old sense was to free someone from a deception or a false belief.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From “to undeceive” the verb moved to “to make someone lose his hopes or illusions”, the current sense; the DLR labels the first sense obsolete.^[2] The reflexive is old too: a text of 1838 says „Vai de cel ce se amăgește târziu, că nu se va mai dezamăgi niciodată” “woe to him who is deceived late, for he will never be undeceived”.^[2] Today it is a synonym of deziluziona and decepționa.^[4][3] The adjective dezamăgitor “disappointing” is recorded in 1862, in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[6]

Timeline

• 1786–1788 – disamăgi in Gherasim, the first record.^[6]
• 1818 – Petru Maior's Telemachus: “to undeceive”.^[3][2]
• 1838 – the reflexive a se dezamăgi.^[2]
• 1848 – the record Tiktin dates the verb by.^[5]
• 1862 – dezamăgitor in Pontbriant.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To disappoint; to make someone lose his hopes or illusions: Rezultatul ne-a dezamăgit pe toți.^[4][3][1]
2. (transitive, reflexive, obsolete) To free someone, or oneself, from a deception or a false belief; to undeceive.^[2]

Word family

• dezamăgit
• dezamăgire
• dezamăgitor

Related words

• amăgi

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dezamăgi
3. ^ 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, 689
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 306
5. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dezamăgi
6. ^ a b c d e f 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. amăgi