ierna

Forms

ierna (third-person singular present iernează, past participle iernat), 1st conjugation^[1] Old texts write it with e-: erna.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin hībernō (“to spend the winter”), a verb formed on hībernus (“of winter”).^{[2][4][3][5][6][1]} DEX also allows a Romanian formation on iarnă.^[7] The word survives south of the Danube as Aromanian arnedz, which adds an Aromanian suffix;^[1][5] Candrea and Densusianu give its infinitive as arnare.^[1][5] Its Romance cognates include Italian invernare, Sardinian ierrare, French hiverner, Occitan ivernar, Spanish invernar and Portuguese invernar.^[6][5] The learned hiberna is a later borrowing of the same Latin verb.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean, the 16th-century Acts of the Apostles: at Acts 28:11 the travellers sail in a ship that had wintered on the island, and at Acts 27:12 the noun ernare “wintering” describes a harbour unfit to winter in.^[3][4][2]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive sense “to spend the winter” came first; it is used of armies, of people and of migrating birds.^[3] The transitive sense, “to keep and feed livestock through the winter”, is a herding use: the shepherds take their sheep to sheltered winter grazing.^[3][8] Candrea and Densusianu add the Lexicon of Buda's iernătură “wintering” and the reflexive verbs a se înierna “to turn wintry” and a se desierna “to stop being winter”.^[5] In slang it is said of a man who lives off a woman.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – the first record, in the Codicele Voronețean (Acts 28:11).^[2][4]
• 1673 – iernează and iernez gloss Slavonic “winters” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• 1688 – iernat in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]
• 1825 – iernătură “wintering” in the Lexicon of Buda.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To winter, to spend the winter somewhere.^[7][2][1]
2. (transitive) To shelter and feed livestock through the winter.^[7][2]
3. To hibernate.^[2][1]
4. (slang) Of a man: to be kept by a woman.^[9]

Word family

• iernare
• iernat

Related words

• iarnă
• iernatic
• hiberna
• Aromanian arnedz

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 1107
3. ^ 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. ierna
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. ierná
5. ^ a b c d e f Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 135
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4124
7. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 488
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. ierna
9. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. ierna
10. ^ 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. ierna
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Acts 28:11