logodnă

Forms

logodnă f (plural logodne)^[1] Regional forms include logornă, which Scriban places in Muntenia and Oltenia, and logolnă.^[2][3] MDA2 also lists the older logonă and the regional logoană, logodă and logondă.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic лагодьнъ (lagodĭnŭ, “suitable, agreeable”), an Old Church Slavonic adjective taken over in its feminine form and used as a noun.^{[5][6][4][7][1]} Miklosich glosses the Slavonic word as “fitting, congruous”, and also “moderate” and “best”.^[8] DLR translates it “in good agreement”.^[6]

The Slavonic adjective goes back to Proto-Slavic *lagodьnъ.^[9][1] ESSJa and Miklosich list its relatives in the other Slavic languages, among them Polish łagodny (“mild, gentle”) and Serbo-Croatian lagodan (“pleasant, comfortable”).^[9][8] The Romanian verb logodi belongs to the same Slavonic family.^[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a document of 1624, published in the DIR collection.^[3][6] In the 1640s the chroniclers use it for a betrothal between princely families: Ureche writes that the envoys were thanked, „iară de logodnă au îndelungat într-altă dată” “but the betrothal they put off to another time”.^[6] MDA2 gives Varlaam's Cazania of 1643 as its first record.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word named the pledge to marry and the ceremony that sealed it, with the exchange of rings.^[6][3] Tiktin quotes an old text on the betrothals and marriages arranged by the boyars of old, and a chronicle that uses it figuratively for the union of Christ and the Church.^[3] The meaning spread to the feast held at the betrothal and to the time between betrothal and wedding.^[6][4][7] An older sense, now obsolete, was the gift that sealed the agreement, such as the ring a suitor sent to his bride-to-be.^[5][4] In the church the word also names the prayer read at the ceremony.^[5][4]

In the late 1990s the press began to use it ironically for a political alliance or collaboration between parties.^[11]

Timeline

• 1624 – the first record, in a document of the DIR collection.^[3][6]
• 1643 – logodnă in Varlaam's Cazania.^[4]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda translates it with Latin sponsalia and German Verlobniß.^[12]
• 1999 – the ironic political sense “alliance between parties”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. betrothal, engagement: the ceremony, often religious, in which a man and a woman promise to marry; the solemn promise itself.^[7][4][1]
2. The party held at this ceremony.^[7][4]
3. The period between the betrothal and the wedding.^[7][4]
4. (church) The prayer read by the priest at a betrothal.^[4][5]
5. (obsolete) A gift or pledge that confirms a betrothal.^[4][5]
6. (figurative, ironic) An alliance between political parties.^[11]

Word family

• logodnic

Related words

• logodi
• Old Church Slavonic лагодьнъ (lagodĭnŭ)

Usage notes

The phrase a rupe logodna means “to break off the engagement”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună
3. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. logodnă
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1388
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. logodnă
6. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. logodnă
7. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 599
8. ^ a b Miklosich, Franz (1862–1865), Lexicon palaeoslovenico-graeco-latinum emendatum auctum, Vindobonae: Braumüller, p. s.v. лагодьнъ
9. ^ a b Trubačev, Oleg N.; Žuravlev, Anatolij F.; Varbot, Žanna Ž. (eds.) (1974–2021), Ètimologičeskij slovar' slavjanskix jazykov: praslavjanskij leksičeskij fond, vols. 1–42, Moskva: Nauka
10. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main
11. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE)
12. ^ 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.)