fierbinte

Forms

fierbinte m or f or n (plural fierbinți)^[1] Old texts and Moldavian speech have herbinte: Dosoftei's psalter reads „inima mia iaste în mine herbinte” “my heart is hot within me”.^[2][3] The 16th and 17th centuries also have fierbente, and ferbinte occurs too.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fervēns (“boiling, hot”), the present participle of ferveō (“to boil”).^{[4][5][3][2][6][7][1][8]} Candrea and Densusianu point out that the regular outcome would have been ⟨ferbinte⟩, and explain the ⟨ie⟩ by the influence of fierbe “to boil”.^[9] The cognates include Friulian ferbint and Spanish hirviente.^[7][1]

Its doublet fervent is borrowed from French fervent.^[4][2][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Voronețeană of the 16th century, where the word is a noun, “heat”: „blagosloviți ... frigul și fierbintele” “bless ... the cold and the heat”.^[3] MDA2 gives Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686) as its first record.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The DA gives as the first, literal sense “boiling”, said of liquids, and by extension “very hot”;^[2][5] MDA2 marks “boiling” as old.^[2][5] The figurative sense “ardent, fervent” is old as well: Ureche writes of foreign chroniclers who were „râvnitori și herbinți” “zealous and fervent”, and Antim speaks of love that is hierbinte.^[2] It often qualifies tears, prayers, love and longing (lacrimi fierbinți “hot tears”, dor fierbinte “burning longing”), and it is also used as an adverb, “ardently”.^[2][3][6] A rare sense is “vivid”, said of colours.^[6][5]

Timeline

• c. 1551–1558 – fierbintele “the heat” in the Psaltirea Voronețeană, Tiktin's first record.^[3]
• 1642–1647 – herbinți “fervent” in Ureche's chronicle.^[2]
• 1673 – herbinte in Dosoftei's verse psalter.^[2]
• 1682–1686 – Dosoftei's lives of the saints, MDA2's first record.^[5]
• 1688 – fierbinte in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]
• 1815 – „cu fierbinți lacrimi” “with hot tears” in a Moldavian document.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Very hot, giving off strong heat; scorching;^[6][5] (dated, of liquids) boiling.^[6][5]
2. (figurative, of feelings and their expression; often as an adverb) Very strong, deep, ardent.^[6][5]
3. (rare, of colours) Bright, vivid.^[6]

Word family

• fierbințeală
• înfierbânta
• înfierbântător
• fierbincior

Related words

• fierbe
• răsfierbe
• înfierbăza
• fervent
• Latin fervēns

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. fierbinte
3. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. fierbinte
4. ^ a b 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. fierbinte
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 902
6. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 392
7. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 52
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. fierbinte
10. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 104
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Job 37:17