im

Forms

im n (plural imuri)^[1] In the Banat there is a feminine variant imă.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin līmus (“mud, slime”).^{[4][5][3][6][2][7][1]} The Latin initial /l/ was lost, as in “flax” comes from līnum.^[8] The Romance cognates include Italian limo, Occitan lim, Catalan llim, Spanish limo, Portuguese limo and the derivative French limon.^[4][7] Ciorănescu also compares Albanian ljim.^[4]

The Latin word may come from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyH- (“to smear”).^[1] De Vaan links it either with the Germanic words for loam or with those for slime.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Palia de la Orăștie of 1581–1582, in Genesis 11:3.^[6][3] Tiktin glosses it “dirt, mud, mire, clay”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word lives on mainly in Transylvania, the Banat and Oltenia, where it means mud, mire and especially dirt on the body.^[2][10][11] MDA2 adds two regional senses, “earwax” and “sheep droppings”.^[3] Its derivatives include the adjective imos “dirty, muddy”, which Candrea and Densusianu take from Latin līmōsus, imală “mud, clay” and the verb imoșa “to dirty”.^[4][2][12] Hungarian imolya was borrowed from the Romanian word.^[4][13]

Timeline

• 1581-1582 – im in the Palia de la Orăștie (Genesis 11:3), the first record.^[6][3]
• c. 1670 – the derivative imală “mud, clay”.^[14]
• 1814 – the adjective imos “dirty” in Țichindeal's fables.^[12][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional) mud, mire.^[5][3][1]
2. Dirt, filth, especially on the body.^[5][3][2]
3. (regional) earwax.^[3]
4. (regional) Sheep droppings.^[3]

Word family

• imos
• imală
• imălos
• imoșa
• imăciune

Related words

• Latin līmus

Usage notes

DEX also lists an im², a variant of the prefix in-.^[5] MDA2 and the DA record an unrelated im of unknown origin, a Moldavian grain measure, in a document of 1741.^[3][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. im
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1114
4. ^ 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. im
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 491
6. ^ 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. im
7. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 67
8. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 118
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. im
11. ^ Densusianu, Ovid (1915), Graiul din Țara Hațegului, București: Socec, p. 319
12. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. imós
13. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. im
14. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. imálă
15. ^ 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. im 2