iarnă

Forms

iarnă f (plural ierni)^[1] The old plural was ierne;^[2] iernuri is rare.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin hīberna (“winter quarters, wintry times”), short for the phrase tempora hīberna (“wintry times”).^[3][2][4][5] Wiktionary and NODEX start from the singular, Late Latin hībernum (“winter”), the noun that replaced Classical hiems.^[1][6] Both come from the adjective hībernus (“of winter”).^[1]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian iarnă, Megleno-Romanian iarnă and Istro-Romanian iǫrnę.^[3][7] The Romance cognates come from the singular: Italian inverno, French hiver, Spanish invierno and Portuguese inverno.^[3][8] The verb ierna “to winter” may be a Romanian derivative or continue hībernō directly, like Aromanian arnedz.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Gospel text of 1551–1553, Matthew 24:20: „Rugați-vă cum se nu fie fuga voastră iarna” “pray that your flight be not in the winter”.^[5] Scriban quotes the old plural ierne from the chronicles: ierne grele “hard winters”.^[9] MDA2's first record is Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word names the coldest season, between autumn and spring.^[4] The form iarna is used as an adverb, “in winter”, and astă-iarnă and la iarnă mean “last winter” and “next winter”.^[5][6] Figuratively it stands for a year, and old age is iarna vieții.^[4][9] Old and rare senses are “snow” and “storm”.^[2] The proverb iarna n-o mănâncă lupii says that winter always comes in the end.^[10][5] The press of 1984 used iarnă nucleară, after English nuclear winter.^[11]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – iarna in a Gospel text, Matthew 24:20.^[5]
• 1660 – iarnă glossing Slavonic зима “winter” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1682–1686 – in Dosoftei's lives of the saints, MDA2's first record.^[2]
• 1984 – iarnă nucleară “nuclear winter” in the press.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. winter: the coldest season of the year, after autumn and before spring, from the solstice of 22 December to the equinox of 21 March: o iarnă lungă “a long winter”.^[4][2][1]
2. (adverbial, as iarna) In winter, during the winter.^[4]
3. (figurative) A year.^[4][2]

Word family

• ierna
• iernat
• iernatic
• iernos
• iernător
• înierna

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 1101
3. ^ 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. iarnă
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. 485
5. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. iarnă
6. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. iarnă
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 153
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4126
9. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 612
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. iarnă
11. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. iarnă
12. ^ 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. iarnă