ginere

Forms

ginere m (plural gineri, feminine equivalent noră)^[1] In Transylvania a variant junere occurs, shaped after june “young man”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gener (“son-in-law”).^{[5][4][6][7][1]} The Latin word comes from Proto-Indo-European *ǵm̥ros, and its ⟨n⟩ is explained from an earlier ⟨m⟩; Ancient Greek γαμβρός (gambrós, “son-in-law, bridegroom”) is a cognate.^[8][1] The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian dzinire, Megleno-Romanian ziniri and Istro-Romanian žiner.^{[5][9][10][7]} Its Romance cognates include Italian genero, French gendre, Spanish yerno and Portuguese genro.^[5][11]

The sense “bridegroom” has parallels in the Greek word and in Albanian dhëndër, which also have both senses.^[12][2][8] Sandfeld took the Romanian sense from Greek, but Ciorănescu objects that the word never meant simply “married man”; it names the man in his relation to his parents-in-law or at the wedding.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1561 (John 2:9), the wedding at Cana, where it is the bridegroom.^[2] The Coresi Psalter of 1570 has it in Psalm 18:5.^[13] MDA2 dates the word from the Tetraevanghel of 1574, where ten virgins go out to meet the bridegroom.^[4][12]

Semantic evolution

Both Latin and Romanian senses appear from the start: the husband of one's daughter and the bridegroom.^[5][2] A document of 1614 has Anton, ginere-său “Anton, his son-in-law”.^[12] The sense “bridegroom” is now popular, mainly in Transylvania and Muntenia; in the Banat the word can also mean “brother-in-law”.^[4][6] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of the 17th century gloss it with the Slavonic words for “bridegroom” and “son-in-law”.^[14]

The proverb după moarte, și cal de ginere “after death, a bridegroom's horse too” is said of help that comes too late.^[12][15]

Timeline

• 1561 – ginere “bridegroom” in Coresi's Tetraevanghel, the first record.^[2]
• 1570 – in the Coresi Psalter.^[13]
• 1574 – in the Tetraevanghel, MDA2's first record.^[4]
• 1614 – ginere-său “his son-in-law” in a document.^[12]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – ginere împăratului “the king's son-in-law” in the Bucharest Bible (1 Samuel 22:14).^[2][16]
• 1892 – the diminutive gineraș.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A son-in-law: a woman's husband, seen in relation to her parents.^[6][4][1]
2. (popular, Transylvania and Muntenia) A bridegroom.^[6][4]
3. (regional, Banat) A brother-in-law.^[4]

Word family

• gineri
• ginerie
• gineraș
• ginerică

Related words

• Aromanian dzinire
• Latin gener

Usage notes

With a possessive it is joined to the noun: ginere-meu, ginere-său “my, his son-in-law”.^[2] Its feminine counterpart is noră “daughter-in-law”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ginere
3. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. ginere
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 998
5. ^ a b c d e 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. ginere
6. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 439
7. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 62
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 434
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 338
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3730
12. ^ a b c d e 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. ginere
13. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 18:5
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. ginere
15. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 558
16. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 1 Samuel 18:18