intra

Forms

intra (third-person singular present intră, past participle intrat, third-person subjunctive intre), 1st conjugation^[1] Old and popular Romanian has întra, as in Coresi's Gospel: „Întră întru celariul tău și închide ușa ta” “go into your storeroom and shut your door”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin intrō (“to go into, enter”).^[4][5][3][1] Wiktionary takes the modern form as a change of the original întra.^[1] The first person singular is Aromanian întru, Megleno-Romanian antru and Istro-Romanian întru in the other three branches.^[4] Its Romance cognates include Italian intrare, French entrer, Occitan intrar, Spanish entrar and Portuguese entrar.^[4][6]

The combining form intra- “inside” has a separate source, the learned French intra- and Italian intra-, which go back to the Latin preposition for “inside”.^[3][5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 gives the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583) as its first record, and Tiktin cites the Psaltirea Scheiană, both in the sense “to go in”.^[5][8] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has „Câte doao, câte doao întrară cătră Noe în chivot” “two by two they went in to Noah into the ark”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From going into a place, the verb came to mean joining a group or an institution, taking up a post, the start of a period of time, and things that fit into something or are needed to make it.^[4][3] Old Romanian also used it with către for “to approach someone” and with cu for “to associate with”, senses now lost.^[1][4] In card games it means to be dealt good cards, and of cloth to shrink in water (a intra la apă).^[4][3]

Many idioms use the verb: a intra în pământ “to die” or “to vanish”, a intra în vorbă “to start a conversation”, a intra în vigoare “to come into force” and a intra sub pielea cuiva “to worm one's way into someone's favour”.^[5][3]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – intra “to go in” in the Codicele Voronețean, MDA2's first record.^[5]
• c. 1573–1578 – the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[8][2]
• 1589 – intra in a Coresi psalter.^[9]
• 1688 – întrară “they went in” in the Bucharest Bible.^[8]
• 1978 – the combining form intra- in the Dicționar de neologisme.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To enter, go in: to pass from outside to inside, from an open place into an enclosed one.^[3][1]
2. (figurative) To get into something, to penetrate: a intra în amănunte “to go into details”.^[3]
3. To join a group, an organization or a profession; to take part in an activity.^[3][4]
4. Of things: to penetrate, pass through: lumina intră prin geam “the light comes in through the window”.^[3]
5. To fit into something; to be needed in a given amount to make a product.^[3]
6. Of a law or treaty, a intra în vigoare: to come into force.^[3]
7. Of cloth: to shrink when washed or soaked (a intra la apă).^[3]

Word family

• intrare
• intrat
• reintra

Related words

• întru
• Latin intrō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. intra
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 518
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. intra
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1154
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4501
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. intra
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. intra
9. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 94:12