famen

Forms

famen m (plural fameni)^[1]

Etymology

It is remade from the plural ⟨fameni⟩ of the old famăn “castrated man”, which is inherited from Vulgar Latin *feminus, formed on Latin fēmina (“woman”).^[2][3][1] Ciorănescu and the Academy dictionary take the Latin form as an adjective used with homo (“man”), made from the noun like vīcīnus beside vīcīna, so that the Romanian word stands for ⟨om famen⟩ “womanish man”.^[4][5][6] Candrea–Densusianu record the old form ⟨foamen⟩ as well.^[7] Scriban explains the vowel from an older ⟨*feamăn⟩, whose plural he compares with that of geamăn, ⟨gemeni⟩.^[8]

The adjective survives south of the Danube with the sense “feminine”: Aromanian feamin and Megleno-Romanian femin.^{[4][9][10][11]} Ciorănescu compares Albanian femërë, Old Occitan feme (“feminine”) and Portuguese fêmeo (“feminine, effeminate”).^[4][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1561, at Matthew 19:12, the verse on those born eunuchs and those made eunuchs by men;^[13][3] MDA2 cites the same Gospel text, dating it before 1574.^[13][3]

Semantic evolution

The old sense was a castrated man, and in particular a eunuch; the 17th-century lexicons gloss it by Slavonic words for a eunuch.^[3][14] The Bible of 1688 keeps the word in the same verse: „Că sunt fameni carii den trupul mumei lor au născut așa” “for there are eunuchs who were born so from their mother's womb”.^[13][15] In the Banat it also meant an impotent man.^[7] Ciorănescu notes that the word was lost in everyday speech and survived in literature thanks to a famous curse by Eminescu: „Niște răi și niște fameni”.^[4][16] From that use comes the figurative sense of a morally degraded man.^[2][16]

Timeline

• 1561 – fameni in Coresi's Tetraevanghel (Matthew 19:12).^[13]
• 1649 – famen in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – fameni in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]
• 1825 – famenu in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic) A castrated man; in particular a eunuch.^[2][3]
2. (figurative) A morally degraded man.^[2][16]
3. (obsolete) A hermaphrodite.^[3]

Related words

• femeie
• Aromanian feamin
• Latin fēmina

References

1. ^ a b 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. 1, 380
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 874
4. ^ 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. famen
5. ^ 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. famen
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 491
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 454
10. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 85
11. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 164
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3239
13. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. famen
14. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. famen
15. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mt 19:12
16. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 256
17. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 211