enorm

Forms

enorm m or n (feminine singular enormă, masculine plural enormi, feminine/neuter plural enorme)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French énorme, with Latin ēnōrmis (“irregular; immense”) as a second model, as DELR, MDA2 and DEX give it;^{[2][3][4][5][1]} MDA2 and the DN compare Italian enorme.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin adjective is formed from ex- (“out of”) and nōrma (“carpenter's square, rule”), “out of rule”.^[6][2] DELR adds, after Ernout and Meillet, that the Latin noun was probably borrowed from Ancient Greek γνώμων (gnṓmōn) through Etruscan.^[2] French borrowed the Latin word in 1340, and Italian had it before 1348.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and MDA2 date the first record to about 1832, in Iordache Golescu's manuscript dictionary Condica limbii rumânești, with the sense “of very great size”; the noun enormitate appears in the same work.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the word first meant “irregular, shapeless”, and only later “immoderate, immense”;^[6][9][7] DHLF dates the French sense “of considerable size” to 1547.^[6][9][7] The DLR's early quotations are from popular science, with an “enormous mass of fire” larger than the Earth.^[10] Șăineanu and CADE add a figurative “excessive”, as in o prostie enormă “a huge blunder”.^[11][12] As an adverb it means “very much”, and followed by de and an adjective it forms a superlative, enorm de greu “enormously hard”.^[4][13]

Timeline

• c. 1832 – enorm and enormitate in Iordache Golescu's Condica.^[2][3]
• 1875 – Antonescu lists the form enormu.^[14]
• 1931 – CADE records the figurative sense and the adverb.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Very large, immense, huge, colossal; enormous.^[4][3][1]
2. (figurative) excessive, beyond measure.^[11][12]

Adverb

1. Very much, enormously.^[4][1]
2. With de and an adjective, forms a superlative: “extremely”.^[4][13]

Word family

• enormitate

Related words

• normă

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. enorm
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 814
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 354
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. enorm
6. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. enorm
11. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 231
12. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. enorm
13. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. enorm
14. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 94