jalnic

Forms

jalnic m or n (feminine singular jalnică, masculine plural jalnici, feminine/neuter plural jalnice)^[1] jealnic: „Am fost nemearnic într-această lume, toată viața jealnic” “I was a stranger in this world, sorrowful all my life” (Dosoftei).^[2] jelnic: „Ca om jelnic, care-ș plânge mortul” “like a mourner weeping for his dead” (Dosoftei's verse Psalter).^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian jale (“grief, mourning”) + -nic: so Tiktin, Scriban, DEX and Wiktionary.^[3][4][5][1] Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of jale and compares Bulgarian жалник (žalnik).^[6] The DA instead takes it straight from that Bulgarian word, “worthy of pity, poor”, with the sense of the Slavic adjective for “sad”.^[2] MDA2 also gives both the Bulgarian word and Old Church Slavonic жальникъ (žalĭnikŭ) as its source.^[7]

The noun for “grief” is in turn from Old Church Slavonic жаль (žalĭ, “pain, grief”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1643, in Varlaam's Cazania.^[3] MDA2's first record is a passage of Dosoftei quoted in Gaster's chrestomathy, with the old spelling jealnic “sorrowful”.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word described both a grieving person and a saddening thing; an ecclesiastical text of 1700 laments „O, jalnică și vrednică de lacrăme așezare a păcătoșilor!” “O sorrowful state of sinners, worthy of tears!”.^[3][2] Another old sense was “in mourning” for a dead person, as in jalnica soție “the grieving widow”;^[3][8] Tiktin marks it as dated.^[3][8] From “saddening” came “pitiable, wretched, deplorable”, the sense of o stare jalnică “a lamentable state”.^[5][9] Colloquially it is now said of people who make a ridiculous or embarrassing show of themselves.^[10] The word is often used as an adverb, “sadly, plaintively”.^[5][1] Salcie jalnică is the weeping willow.^[10]

Timeline

• 1643 – in Varlaam's Cazania, the first record.^[3]
• 1688 – jalnică in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]
• 1700 – „jalnică și vrednică de lacrăme” “sorrowful and worthy of tears” in a religious text.^[3]
• 1931 – CADE records the sense “in mourning”.^[8]
• 2007 – DEXI records the colloquial sense “pathetic, ridiculous”.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Very sad, full of grief; mournful, plaintive: un cântec jalnic “a mournful song”.^[5][7][10]
2. pitiful, wretched, deplorable: Casa era într-o stare jalnică.^[5][9]
3. (colloquial, of people) Pathetic, ridiculous.^[10]
4. (dated) In mourning for someone who has died.^[3][8]

Adverb

1. Sadly, plaintively: Câinele urla jalnic toată noaptea.^[5][1]

Related words

• jale
• jeli
• jelanie

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. jalnic
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. jalnic
4. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 710
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 563
6. ^ a b 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. jale
7. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1274
8. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
9. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional
10. ^ a b c d e Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 2 Macc 9:28