enerva

Forms

enerva (third-person singular present enervează, past participle enervat) first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French énerver, a neologism of the 19th century.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} MDA2, DN and Wiktionary also name Latin ēnervō (“to cut the sinews of; to weaken”), and the DLR compares the Latin verb for the older sense “to weaken”.^[5][7][1][6]

The French verb was borrowed from Latin early in the 13th century with the figurative sense “to deprive of energy”; its modern sense “to irritate, make nervous” is recorded only from 1882.^[8] The Latin verb is formed on ēnervis (“without sinews”), from nervus (“sinew”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Pontbriant's Romanian–French dictionary of 1862, with the old sense “to weaken, enfeeble”.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The Romanian verb went through the same change as the French one.^[6][8] The first sense, to make limp or weak, physically or morally, is listed by the dictionaries of the 1860s–1870s;^[6][10] Antonescu glossed it in 1875 with French “énerver, ramollir”.^[6][10] The DLR labels it rare today, though Pârvan and Ralea still used it.^[6] The modern sense, to lose one's calm or make someone lose it, is found in Caragiale and Vlahuță, and CADE gives both senses in 1931.^[6][11] It is the only sense in DEX 2009.^[2]

Timeline

• 1862 – in Pontbriant's dictionary, in the sense “to weaken”.^[5][6]
• 1875 – glossed by Antonescu with French “énerver, ramollir”.^[10]
• late 19th century – “to irritate” in Caragiale.^[6]
• 1931 – CADE lists the senses “to weaken” and “to irritate”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To annoy, irritate, to make someone lose their calm; to anger.^[2][5][1]
2. (reflexive) To get irritated, lose one's temper; to become out of sorts.^[2][5][1]
3. (rare) To weaken, to make or become limp and exhausted.^[6][5]

Word family

• enervant
• enervare

Related words

• nerv
• French énerver

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 354
3. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. enerva
4. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. enerva
5. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 813
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. enerva
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. enerva
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 93
11. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. enerva