dormita

Forms

dormita (third-person singular present dormitează, past participle dormitat) 1st conjugation^[1] The old texts have durmita: „nu va durmita, nece va adurmi” “he will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, early 16th century).^[2][3] A regional variant in Mehedinți is durminta.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dormītō (“to be sleepy, to drowse”), formed on dormiō (“to sleep”) with the frequentative suffix -itō.^{[6][7][4][8][9][1][10][11][5]} It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian durmitizari and Megleno-Romanian durmitéz.^{[7][6][12][13]} Its Romance cognates include Catalan dormitar, Spanish dormitar and Portuguese dormitar.^[6] Ciorănescu notes it is a popular word, recorded in the linguistic atlas.^[6]

Candrea and Densusianu explain the Mehedinți durminta by a change of suffix, comparing the Old Italian dormentare.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in Psalm 120: „nu va durmita, nece va adurmi” “he will neither slumber nor sleep”.^[2][7][3] The Codicele Voronețean has the figurative „perirea loru nu va durmita” “their destruction will not slumber”.^[3][8] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has the modern form: „Iată nu va dormita nici va adormi cela ce păzește pre Israil” “behold, he that keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep”.^[8][14]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts it could mean simply “to sleep”, a use now rare; the modern sense is “to doze, to sleep lightly and fitfully”.^[3][9] Writers used it figuratively of people who are idle or unaware: Șincai wrote of one who dozed out of pride or ignorance until the Tatars surrounded him, and in 1847 a journal wrote that the peoples of Europe „dormitau în umbrele neștiinței” “were dozing in the shadows of ignorance”.^[3][4] Of things it means “to lie dormant”.^[4] A popular saying, șade, dormitează și deștept visează “he sits, dozes and dreams awake”, is said of a fool.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – durmita in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2][7]
• c. 1563–1583 – the figurative nu va durmita in the Codicele Voronețean.^[8][3]
• c. 1573–1578 – the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[4]
• c. 1660–1682 – the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons.^[15]
• 1688 – dormita in the Bucharest Bible.^[14][8]
• 1847 – the figurative “to be idle, unaware”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To doze, to sleep lightly and fitfully; to nod off now and then: Bunicul dormita în fotoliu.^[9][4][1]
2. (figurative; of people) To be idle, to lack energy; to be sunk in sloth or indifference.^[4][16]
3. (figurative; of things) To lie dormant.^[4]

Related words

• dormi
• adormi
• Megleno-Romanian durmitez

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dormita
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 747
5. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
6. ^ a b c d 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. dormita
7. ^ a b c d 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. dormi
8. ^ 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. dormita
9. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 328
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dormito
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2752
12. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 193
13. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 121
14. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition)
15. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro
16. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 155