legăna

Forms

legăna (third-person singular present leagănă, past participle legănat, third-person subjunctive legene) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *liginō (“to tie up”), formed on Latin ligō (“to tie, bind”).^[2][3][4][1] Pușcariu proposed this etymon, and Tiktin and the REW explain the meaning from the peasant cradle, a cloth or basket tied to the ceiling beam and rocked there.^[5][4]

Densusianu, in Candrea–Densusianu, proposed instead a Latin *leviginō, formed on levis (“light”), with an original sense “to move lightly”; the DLR also gives this etymon.^[6][7] Ciorănescu reverses the relation: for him the verb is derived from leagăn (“cradle”), which he traces, with doubts about the sound changes, to a Latin *lecanis from Ancient Greek λεκάνη (lekánē, “dish, basin”), since the old cradle was a hollowed log.^[8] Tiktin and DEX take the noun from the verb.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coresi's psalter of 1570 has the forms leagăn and leagănă (Psalms 15:8 and 20:7).^[11][12] Tiktin cites the Psaltirea Scheiană (47:6).^[5] In the old literary language the verb meant “to sway, totter”, as in Dosoftei's verse psalter: „Tot pămîntul să ridică Și să leagănă de frică” “the whole earth rises and shakes with fear”.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “to waver, be undecided” appears in Miron Costin: „Ștefan-Vodă îmbla legănându-se încotro va lua” “Prince Stephen kept wavering about which way to go”.^[5][13] The DLRLV records the old sense in Moldavia, Crișana and Transylvania.^[13]

The sense of rocking a child is first quoted from C. A. Rosetti's diary of 1844.^[3][7] The DA notes a literary sense “to lull oneself with vain hopes”, modelled on French bercer and German wiegen.^[14]

Timeline

• 1570 – leagăn and leagănă in Coresi's psalter.^[11]
• c. 1573-1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[5]
• 1673 – „să leagănă de frică” in Dosoftei's verse psalter.^[13]
• c. 1675 – legănându-se “wavering” in Miron Costin.^[5]
• 1844 – rocking a child, in C. A. Rosetti's diary.^[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To rock a child gently from side to side, in a cradle or in one's arms, to put it to sleep.^[2][3]
2. (reflexive, figurative) To be lulled by vain hopes.^[2]
3. (transitive and reflexive) To sway, swing, totter: Crengile se legănau în vânt. “The branches swayed in the wind.”^[2]
4. (reflexive) To ride on a swing.^[2]
5. (reflexive, of people) To move rhythmically, as in walking or dancing.^[2]

Word family

• legănător
• legănătură

Related words

• leagăn

Usage notes

The present has two stress patterns: leagăn, legeni, leagănă and the less common legăn.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 583
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1338
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5028
5. ^ 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. legăna
6. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
7. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. legăna
8. ^ 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. leagăn
9. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. leagăn
10. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 582
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 15:8
12. ^ 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 20:7
13. ^ a b c d Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 167
14. ^ 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. legăna