imos

Forms

imos m or n (feminine singular imoasă, masculine plural imoși, feminine/neuter plural imoase)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin līmōsus (“muddy, slimy”), formed on līmus (“mud, slime”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Candrea and Densusianu take it from the Latin word, with its sound shaped by im “mud”.^[7] Tiktin and DLRLV instead see a native formation from Romanian im + -os, and DEX and Wiktionary give both explanations.^{[8][9][10][1]}

Romance cognates include Italian limoso, Occitan limos, Spanish limoso and Portuguese limoso.^[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and Tiktin date the first record to 1814, in Dimitrie Țichindeal's moral fables, with the sense “dirty”.^[2][8] DLRLV, which covers the old literary language of 1640–1780, also lists it from the Banat as a gloss of Latin īnfectus.^[9]

Semantic evolution

It is a western regional word, used in Oltenia, the Banat and Transylvania.^[8][5] The senses are “dirty” and “full of mud”, and the phrase a umbla imos means “to go about in dirty clothes”.^[2] Ispirescu's tales speak of clothes as dirty as a cowherd's.^[11] It is also a place name: Scriban records a village Imoasa in Mehedinți, and Ștef a valley of that name in Maramureș.^[3][12]

Timeline

• 1814 – imos in Țichindeal's fables.^[2][8]
• 1874 – Baronzi gives it for French limoneux.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (regional) dirty, filthy, soiled.^[10][2][1]
2. (regional) Full of mud, muddy.^[2][10]

Related words

• im
• Latin līmōsus

Usage notes

A umbla imos: to go about in dirty clothes.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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, 1116
3. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 623
4. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 307
5. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. imos
6. ^ a b Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 118
7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 137
8. ^ 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. imós
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 153
10. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 492
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 495
12. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. imós
13. ^ Baronzi, George (1874), Vocabular de 2000 termeni, idiotismi, locuțiuni, proverbi, Galați, p. 24