fain

Forms

fain m or n (feminine singular faină, masculine plural faini, feminine/neuter plural faine)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from German fein (“fine”), a word of Transylvania and the Banat.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The German word is from Middle High German vīn, borrowed from Old French fin, which comes from Latin fīnis (“end, boundary”) by way of the sense “the utmost, the best”.^[7][8]

Gáldi proposed that the word came through Hungarian, and Tamás agrees that in some regions a Hungarian source is possible, since dialectal Hungarian fain and related forms are common there; in general he too takes it from German.^[2][9] Cihac, in 1870, derived it instead from the Slovene and Polish word (Polish fejn).^[10][11] The adjective fin, from French, goes back to the same Latin word, and Gabinschi counts the two as doublets.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1754, in a document published in Iorga's Studii și documente.^[4] Gáldi and Tamás give the oldest records from southern Transylvania, from 1774 on, in lists of goods where it describes fine cloth: in 1780, 100 cot anghinet fain “100 ells of fine cloth”.^[13][9] The first sense is thus “fine, of good quality”, said of fabric and paper.^[14][6]

Semantic evolution

Molnar's translation of Millot's universal history (1800) has hârtie faină holandizască “fine Dutch paper” and trăsurile obrazului ei ceale faine “the fine features of her face”.^[6][3][14] Iorga noted that cloth once called subțire “thin” was later called fain.^[14] From “fine” the word moved to general praise: “handsome, distinguished, elegant, good”, and as an adverb “well, nicely”;^[14][6][15] Borcia found the literal sense “fine” already rare at the start of the 20th century.^[14][6][15] In the Hațeg country an om fain was a distinguished, gallant man and veșminte faine were elegant clothes.^[14]

The word is in common use in Transylvania and the Banat;^[6][2] Borcia also found it in Suceava.^[6][2] It is a regional word of Maramureș as well.^[16] Elsewhere it is rarer: the DA notes a slightly ironic tone outside Transylvania, and Ciorănescu writes that in Muntenia it counts as vulgar.^[14][2][17] DEX labels it regional and colloquial.^[5]

Timeline

• 1754 – the first record, in a document published by Iorga.^[4]
• 1774 – fain in a list of goods from southern Transylvania.^[13][9]
• 1780 – anghinet fain “fine cloth”.^[13]
• 1800 – hârtie faină “fine paper” in Molnar's translation of Millot.^[3][6]
• 1801 – fáin glossed with Hungarian words for “fine, excellent” in Klein's dictionary.^[18]
• 1903 – Borcia describes it as widespread in Transylvania and the Banat.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (regional, colloquial) Of very good quality; fine.^[5][3][1]
2. (regional, colloquial) Beautiful, wonderful, nice;^[5][15][1] o zi faină “a lovely day”.^[5][15][1]
3. (regional) Distinguished, elegant.^[3][15]

Adverb

1. (colloquial) Very well, nicely;^[15][3] cântă fain “she sings very nicely”.^[15][3]

Related words

• fin
• German fein

Usage notes

The feminine is faină, a homograph of făină only in writing without diacritics.^[5] Outside Transylvania, the Banat, Maramureș and Bukovina the word sounds regional or ironic.^[14][2][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. fain
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, 873
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. fain
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 379
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Borcia, Ioan (1903–1904), Deutsche Sprachelemente im Rumänischen, Leipzig (in Weigand, Zehnter Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig), p. 48
7. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 285
8. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
9. ^ a b c Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 315
10. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 87
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 490
12. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 102
13. ^ a b c Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 197
14. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. fain
15. ^ a b c d e f g Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. fain
16. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. fáin
17. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 254
18. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 358