mâine

Forms

mâine (adverb, invariable)^[2] Moldavian and Transylvanian speech have the variant mâne.^[3][2] The variant mâni is old and regional, and mâini is rare.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin māne (“in the morning, early”).^[3][2][1][4] The Latin word was an adverb meaning “early in the day”,^[5] and Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *meh₂- (“to ripen, mature”).^[1] Ciorănescu takes the Romanian word to be the regular outcome of the Latin form, with the same inserted /i/ as câine and pâine.^[3] He notes a similar inserted vowel in Genoese and Abruzzese dialects of Italian, which he explains as a separate development.^[3]

The word survives in all four branches of Romanian: Aromanian mãni, Megleno-Romanian moini and Istro-Romanian măre.^[3][6][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian mane (“morning”), Old French main and Sardinian mane; French demain and dimani add a preposition.^[3][4]

The compound poimâine “the day after tomorrow” joins it to poi, from Latin post (“after”), as in apoi;^[3][7] Aromanian has păimîne and Megleno-Romanian poimoni.^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), where the word already means “tomorrow”.^[2] The DLR quotes it from a text of 1619 printed in Hasdeu's Cuvente den bătrâni and in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Latin māne meant “in the morning, early in the day”,^[5] and Old Italian and Occitan kept it as a noun, “morning”.^[4] The REW glosses the Latin word both “morning” and “tomorrow”; in Romanian only “tomorrow” survives.^[4][3] Șăineanu still glossed the Latin etymon as “the morning of the day”.^[10]

From “tomorrow” the word widened to “in the near future, some day”, and it forms a set of phrases: pe mâine “see you tomorrow”, ca mâine and mâine-poimâine “very soon”.^[11][2] Slang uses mâine (cu țidulă) ironically for “never”.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – the first record, in the Codicele Voronețean.^[2]
• 1619 – mâine in a text printed in Hasdeu's Cuvente den bătrâni.^[9]
• c. 1660 – mîine in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicon Lex.St.^[13]
• 1688 – about 70 occurrences in the Bucharest Bible, from Genesis 30:33 on.^[14]

Meanings

Adverb

1. tomorrow: on the day after today;^[11][2][1] de mâine “from tomorrow on, of the coming days”.^[11][2][1]
2. In the near future; some day, at some later time.^[11][2]

Word family

• poimâine

Related words

• Aromanian mãni
• Latin māne

Usage notes

Pe mâine! is a parting formula, “see you tomorrow”.^[11][15] Ca mâine and mâine-poimâine mean “very soon”, and ba azi, ba mâine describes something put off again and again.^[11][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1466
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. mîine
4. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5294
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 627
7. ^ a b c Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 194
8. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 124
9. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mîine
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 377
11. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 632
12. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. mâine
13. ^ 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. mîine
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 30:33
15. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. mâine