lăcrimos

Forms

lăcrimos m or n (feminine singular lăcrimoasă, masculine plural lăcrimoși, feminine/neuter plural lăcrimoase)^[1] Older and popular texts write lăcrămos: Bodnărescu's „Cu soarele iubirii în ochiul lăcrămos” “with the sun of love in the tearful eye”.^[2][3] MDA2 also lists an old lacrimos and a regional lăcrămios.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lacrimōsus (“tearful, full of tears”), an adjective formed in Latin on lacrima (“tear”) with -ōsus.^{[3][5][1][6][7]} Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of lacrimă, and notes that Pușcariu (article 933) and Candrea–Densusianu (940) take it straight from the Latin adjective.^[8] MDA2 treats it as a Romanian formation lăcrima (“to shed tears”) with the suffix -os, and Tiktin names both the Romanian noun and the Latin word.^[4][2]

The adjective also lives south of the Danube as Aromanian lãcãrmos.^[9][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian lagrimoso, Occitan lagremos, Spanish lagrimoso and Portuguese lagrimoso.^[8][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Șerban Coresi's psalter of 1589, at Psalm 79:6.^[2] MDA2 dates it to Moxa's chronicle of 1620, in the phrase cu ochii lăcrămoși “with tearful eyes”.^[4][5] The first sense is that of eyes full of tears.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From eyes running with tears the word passed to people who weep, or weep easily, from pain, grief or emotion, and then to sad, grieving people.^[4][3] A figurative sense, “causing tears, pitiful, moving”, follows;^[2][10] Tiktin gives it as modelled on the Latin adjective, with Bălcescu's „priveliștea lăcrimoasă” “the pitiful sight”.^[2][10] In old anatomy os lăcrimos named the lacrimal bone of the orbit, and in ironic use the word can mean “tear-jerking”.^[4] DEX labels the word popular today.^[3]

Timeline

• 1589 – in Șerban Coresi's psalter, Psalm 79:6, the first record.^[2]
• 1620 – cu ochii lăcrămoși “with tearful eyes” in Moxa's chronicle.^[4][5]
• 1929 – Șăineanu glosses it “pitiful”, quoting Bălcescu.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (popular) Of eyes: full of tears, with tears running down; înlăcrimat.^[3][4]
2. (popular) Of a person: tearful, who weeps easily.^[3][1]
3. (figurative) That moves one to tears: pitiful, sad, touching; jalnic.^[3][4]

Related words

• lacrimă
• lăcrima
• Aromanian lãcãrmos
• Latin lacrimōsus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. lăcrimós
3. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 580
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1319
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lăcrimos
6. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c 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. lacrimă
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 576
10. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 354