lumina

Forms

(present luminez, third-person singular luminează, past participle luminat), 1st conjugation.^[1]

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as a verb formed from Romanian lumină (“light”) within the language.^[2][3][4][5] Ciorănescu treats it as a derivative of the noun as well: its conjugation looks Romanian, and the /i/ it keeps shows that it depends directly on the noun.^[6]

Tiktin instead takes it inherited from Latin lūminō (“to light up, illuminate”), and not from the noun.^[7] He explains the /i/ by supposing that it first stood only in the forms with an ending in /e/ (as in the old present ⟨vinez⟩ beside the infinitive vâna) and then spread to the rest of the verb under the influence of the noun.^[7] Candrea and Densusianu also start from the Latin verb, with its vowel reshaped after the noun, and compare Italian luminare, Old French lumer and Occitan lumenar.^[8] Șăineanu gave the Latin verb as the source too.^[9] Graur objected that the Latin verb ought to have given a form with /ă/, as lumânare did from lūmināria, and found none of the proposed explanations of the pair satisfactory.^[10] The Latin verb is a post-classical formation on lūmen (“light”).^[11][12]

South of the Danube, Aromanian lunjinedz is explained the same two ways, from lunjinã or from the Latin verb.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, at Psalm 33:6.^[7] MDA2 dates its first record to before 1550, in a text printed in Hasdeu's Cuvente den bătrâni.^[3] Coresi's psalter of 1570 has the forms luminează and luminezi.^[13][14] In Coresi's Carte de învățătură fire, among other things, „luminează şi curăţeaşte” “gives light and cleanses”, the intransitive sense “to shine”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The oldest uses are the intransitive “to shine, give light”, said of the sun, the stars or a lamp, and the transitive “to light up”: the Bible of 1688 says that the rising moon will not light up the night, „Nici răsăritul lunii va lumina noaptea ta”.^[5][7] A figurative sense “to enlighten the mind” is recorded in a manuscript of about 1633: „Luminează mintea mea ce s-au întunecat de pohte reale” “enlighten my mind, which has been darkened by evil desires”.^[7] From it come “to instruct, educate” and “to make clear”, and the reflexive could mean “to be educated”.^[2][7]

The reflexive a se lumina means “to grow light”, above all in se luminează de ziuă “day is breaking”, and also “to clear up” and, of a face, “to brighten with joy”.^[2][7][3] Regional senses are “to flash with lightning” in Transylvania and, of grapes, “to begin to ripen”.^[3] An old reflexive sense was “to be proud”.^[3] The participle luminat was an official epithet of the reigning prince from the 17th to the 19th century.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – the first record in Tiktin's dating, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Ps 33:6).^[7]
• before 1550 – MDA2's first record, in a text printed in Hasdeu's Cuvente den bătrâni.^[3]
• 1570 – luminează and luminezi in Coresi's psalter.^[13][14]
• c. 1633 – the figurative “to enlighten (the mind)” in a manuscript.^[7]
• 1649 – luminez glosses a Slavonic verb for “to illuminate” in Mardarie's lexicon.^[15]
• 1688 – va lumina “will light up” in the Bucharest Bible (Isaiah 60:19).^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To shine, to give out light; to be bright.^[2][3][1]
2. (transitive) To illuminate something, throw light on it; to light someone's way with a lamp;^[2][3] a lumina cuiva calea “to guide someone”.^[2][3]
3. (reflexive) To become light, fill with light;^[2][3] a se lumina de ziuă “(of the day) to dawn”; to clear up.^[2][3]
4. (figurative) To enlighten, instruct, educate; to make clear; also reflexive.^[2][1]
5. (figurative) To guide, direct.^[2][3]
6. (figurative) To cheer, brighten;^[2][3] (reflexive, of the face or eyes) to light up with joy.^[2][3]
7. (figurative, intransitive, of an idea or image) To appear, take shape.^[2][4]
8. (regional, Transylvania) To flash with lightning.^[3]

Word family

• luminat
• luminător
• luminare
• strălumina

Related words

• ilumina
• lumânare
• lume
• luminație
• lumină
• luminăciune
• luminos
• Aromanian lunjinedz
• Latin lūminō

Usage notes

The present is luminez;^[3][5] MDA2 records an old and popular present lumin, and the New Testament of 1648 has the subjunctive să lumine.^[3][5] Tiktin notes a lumini in the rhyme of a folk song.^[7] DEX records a se lumina a ploaie, said of a sky taking on the diffuse light that comes before rain.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 604
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1403
4. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. lumina
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. luminá
6. ^ a b 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. lumină
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. luminá
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. lumina
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 372
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1963), Etimologii romînești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. lumina
11. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. lumino
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. lūminō
13. ^ 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 12:4
14. ^ 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 17:31
15. ^ 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. luminez