enervant

Forms

enervant m or n (feminine singular enervantă, masculine plural enervanți, feminine/neuter plural enervante)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French énervant (“irritating”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Scriban also names Latin ēnervāns, the present participle of ēnervō.^[6] It goes with the verb enerva.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to 1900, in the third edition of Barcianu's Romanian–German dictionary,^[3] and the DLR cites Barcianu for the old sense “exhausting, weakening”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “which weakens, which exhausts” is now obsolete and rare.^[5][3] The sense “irritating” is current from the early 20th century: Șăineanu's dictionary of 1929 gives the example of oppressive heat,^[7] and the CADE quotes Vlahuță.^[8] Rebreanu, Ibrăileanu, Camil Petrescu and Arghezi used it.^[5] Used as an adverb before another adjective, enervant works as an intensifier: Călinescu describes a man as enervant de molatic “irritatingly sluggish”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1900 – the first record, in Barcianu's dictionary.^[3]
• 1929 – in Șăineanu's dictionary.^[7]
• 1931 – in the CADE, with a quotation from Vlahuță.^[8]
• 1939 – in Scriban's dictionary.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. annoying, irritating; that gets on one's nerves.^[2][3][1]
2. (obsolete, rare) Exhausting, weakening.^[3][5]

Related words

• enerva

Usage notes

As an adverb before an adjective it intensifies it: enervant de lent “maddeningly slow”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 354
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
5. ^ 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. enervant
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună
7. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 231
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 469