lămuri

Forms

lămuri (third-person singular present lămurește, past participle lămurit) 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian lamură + -i, from the noun for pure, refined metal and the best part of anything.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The noun is from Latin lāmina (“thin sheet of metal; bar of gold or silver”).^[6][4][7] Ciorănescu explains its form from a plural ⟨*lamene⟩, which became ⟨lamuri⟩ after the plurals in ⟨-uri⟩; the singular was then rebuilt from it.^[6] DEX allows a diminutive *lam(i)nula as well.^[8]

Two older views derived the verb directly from Latin: Crețu from lūminō (“to light up”), and Körting from another Latin verb.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Eustratie's Pravila of 1632.^[4] The early sense was “to refine, purify”, of gold and silver: the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has „lămuritu-ne-ai pre noi cum lămurește argintul” “thou hast tried us as silver is tried” (Psalm 65:9).^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The old texts use the verb for refining metals in fire, and figuratively for testing and purifying the soul.^[9][3] Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 has lămurit for “refined gold”.^[10] From purifying came separating one thing from a mixture, as grain from chaff, and making something stand out distinctly.^[5][4]

The senses “to make clear, explain” and, reflexively, “to become clear, to come to understand” grew from this and are now the main ones; the sense “to purify” is marked as dated.^[2][5][4] In slang the verb is used ironically for “to beat up”.^[11]

Timeline

• 1632 – the first record, in Eustratie's Pravila.^[4]
• 1645 – the base noun lamură in the Herodot translation.^[12]
• 1649 – lămurit “refined (gold)” in Mardarie's lexicon.^[10]
• 1688 – “to refine, try” of silver in the Bucharest Bible.^[4][3]
• 1801 – Klein glosses it with Latin clarifico, purifico and probo.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To help someone understand; to come to understand something;^[2] (reciprocal) to reach an understanding after talking a matter over: Ne-am lămurit în cele din urmă. “We finally got it straight.”^[2]
2. (transitive) To make clear, to clarify, to explain;^[2][3] (reflexive) to become clear.^[2][3]
3. (reflexive, of things) To appear distinctly; to stand out.^[2]
4. (dated, transitive and reflexive) To purify, to refine; to become pure.^[2][3]
5. (slang, ironic) To beat up.^[11]

Word family

• lămurire
• lămurit
• lămuritor
• nelămurit

Related words

• lamură
• Latin lāmina

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 580
3. ^ 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, 1321
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. lămurí
5. ^ a b c 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. lămurí
6. ^ a b c d 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. lamură
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1308
8. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 576
9. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lămurí
10. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. lămurit
11. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. lămuri
12. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. lámură
13. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 388