imagine

Forms

imagine f (plural imagini)^[1] A rare variant is imagină.^[2][3] Negulici's dictionary of 1848, in the transitional alphabet, spells it imaǵǵine.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin imāgō (“likeness, image”), with its stem from the accusative imāginem, and with senses taken from French image.^[2][5][1] The DA and Scriban give only the Latin word.^[6][7] Tiktin compares Italian immagine.^[3]

The Latin noun is related to imitor (“to imitate”) and perhaps to aemulus (“rivalling”); its further origin is poorly attested.^[8][9] Its Romance descendants include Spanish imagen and Portuguese imagem; the French word is a remodelling of Old French imagine of about 1050.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1794.^[3] In 1848 Negulici glosses it as a representation in sculpture or painting, an icon, and quotes the commandment against making God after one's own image.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The DA starts from the Latin sense, “copy, likeness”, and sets out the senses that grew from it: a reflection in water or a mirror (in physics, the real and the virtual image), a picture or likeness of a person, and the picture of things kept in the mind, as in Eminescu's lines on the scraps of images that memory keeps.^[6] The rhetorical sense, a figure that makes an idea vivid, is in Laurian and Massim and in Șăineanu.^[12][13] Pontbriant in 1862 translates it with French image, ressemblance and portrait.^[14] Advertising has given it the sense of the way the public sees a person or an institution.^[15]

Timeline

• 1794 – the first record.^[3]
• 1848 – imaǵǵine “representation in sculpture or painting; icon” in Negulici.^[4]
• 1862 – Pontbriant's dictionary.^[14]
• 1871–1876 – the philosophical and rhetorical senses in Laurian and Massim.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The sensory reflection of an object in the mind, as a perception or a mental representation; a visual or auditory representation;^[2][5] (concrete) an object perceived by the senses.^[2][5]
2. A reproduction of an object made with an optical system; a picture of a being, a thing or a scene made by drawing, painting or sculpture; the artistic rendering of reality in sounds, words or colours: Revista publică imagini din satele de munte.^[2][16]
3. (physics) The figure formed where rays of light, or their extensions, meet after reflection or refraction.^[2][5]
4. The way a person or an institution is seen by the public.^[15][5]

Related words

• imagina
• imaginar
• imaginație
• Latin imāgō

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 491
3. ^ 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. imagine
4. ^ a b c Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. imagine
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1114
6. ^ a b 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. imagine
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 621
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b Laurian, A. T.; Massim, I. C. (1871–1876), Dictionariulu limbei romane, 2 vols., Bucuresci: Noua Typographia a Laboratoriloru Romani, p. s.v. imagine
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 305
14. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 312
15. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. imagine
16. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 493