lânced

Forms

lânced m or n (feminine singular lâncedă, masculine plural lâncezi, feminine/neuter plural lâncede)^[1] The old texts write lânged, as in the form lângedulu “the sick man” of the Codicele Voronețean and in Coresi's psalter.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin languidus (“faint, weak”).^{[4][3][2][5][6][7][1]} The Latin adjective is formed from langueō (“to be faint, weary”) with the suffix -idus.^[8][1] Ciorănescu notes that among the Romance languages only Romanian kept the word, the others having learned forms of it.^[4]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian lãndzit and Megleno-Romanian lîngit or lîngid.^[4][6][1]

The old form was lânged, with the /g/ of Latin, and it is still heard rarely; the /k/ of the modern form is later.^[4] The change has been put down to the analogy of muced “mouldy”;^[4][9][10] Candrea and Densusianu add rânced “rancid” and vâlced, Scriban the first of these alone, while Ciorănescu prefers a dissimilation of /g/ before /d/.^[4][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean, about 1563–1583, where lângedul is “the sick man” of the Epistle of James.^[3][2] Coresi's psalter of 1570 has the old form lînged too.^[11] In the old language the word meant “sick, ill”, as in the New Testament of 1648.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From “sick” the meaning widened to “weakened by illness, exhausted”, the sense in which Cantemir used it and the only one the DA still found alive among speakers.^[2] In the 19th century Alecsandri, Olănescu and Caragiale used it for a languid voice, a weary flock or a slack bodily posture.^[2] Figurative senses followed: a stagnant activity, a dull and conventional literature, a languid gaze, a slow rhythm, a faint light or sound, mild weather and a stale smell.^[3][12] In Bukovina it was also said of food without taste, perhaps under the influence of rânced.^[2] The derivatives lâncezi “to languish” and lâncezeală “languor” belong to the same family.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – lângedul “the sick man” in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1570 – lînged in Coresi's psalter.^[11]
• 1648 – lânged “sick” in the New Testament.^[2]
• 1825 – lânced with the Latin gloss languidus in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (obsolete) Weakened by illness, worn out.^[5][3]
2. Lacking vigour or energy; languid, limp: o privire lâncedă “a languid look”.^[5][3][1]
3. (figurative) Of an activity: stagnant, sluggish.^[3]
4. Of a sound or light: faint, of low intensity.^[3]

Word family

• lâncezeală
• lâncezi

Related words

• lingoare
• Latin languidus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. lânced
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1331
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. lînced
5. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 582
6. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 84
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4890
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
10. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 753
11. ^ a b 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 104:36
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 773
13. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 342