mână

Forms

mână f (plural mâini)^[1] The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki has the plural mănrule, with /n/ written ⟨nr⟩: „Rrădicu mănrule meale” “I lifted up my hands”.^[2][3] Old texts have the plural mânule: „Luă o piatră mare cu amîndouă mănule” “he took a big stone with both hands” (Herodotus translation, 1645).^[3][4] Other plurals are mâne, mâni and mânuri (old and regional) and regional mânâle.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin manus (“hand”).^[4][2][5][6] Wiktionary and Pușcariu set up a Vulgar Latin *mana in between, with the feminine ending -a, and Pușcariu found it in Tuscan, southern Italian, Old Venetian and Corsican mana.^[1][5] Ciorănescu thinks it unnecessary: the singular could have been formed from the plural ⟨mâni⟩, beside the old plural ⟨mânule⟩.^[4]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian mãnã, Megleno-Romanian mǫnă and Istro-Romanian mâr, the last with /n/ turned to /r/.^[1][4][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian mano, French main, Spanish mano and Portuguese mão.^[4][6] Ciorănescu also compares mâner, mânecă, mănușă and mănunchi.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, copied about 1500–1520, with the plural mănrule “hands”.^[2][3] The Codicele Voronețean has „Și-și legă picioarele sale și mănrule” “and he bound his own feet and hands” (Acts 21:11).^[3] The word meant both the hand and the whole arm.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the hand the word passed to what the hand holds or does: a handful (o mână de sare “a handful of salt”), a small band of people (o mână de oameni), a side (pe mâna dreaptă “on the right”), skill (mână de maestru “a master's hand”), and rank or quality (de mâna a doua “second-rate”).^[9][4][10] Pușcariu compared the last phrase with old Lombard and Veronese de meza man.^[5] In card games it names the player whose turn it is.^[4]

Many idioms use the word: a cere mâna “to ask for a girl's hand in marriage”, pe sub mână “secretly”, mână în mână “in concert”.^[9][10] It is the common word throughout Romanian; only in Crișana has brâncă replaced it, according to the linguistic atlas.^[4] The verb mânui “to handle” was formed on the model of French manier, and înmâna “to hand over” is a literary formation of the 19th century.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – mănrule “hands” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2][3]
• 1563–1583 – mănrule in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]
• 1570 – mâinile “the hands” in Coresi's psalter.^[11]
• 1643 – the form mânu in Varlaam's Cazania.^[5]
• 1645 – cu amîndouă mănule “with both hands” in the Herodotus translation.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. each of the two upper limbs of the human body, from the shoulder to the fingertips; especially the hand, the end of the forearm with its five fingers: Și-a spălat mâinile înainte de masă.^[10][2][1]
2. a handful: as much as a hand can hold.^[9][4]
3. a small group of people: o mână de soldați “a handful of soldiers”.^[9]
4. side, direction: pe mâna stângă “on the left”.^[10][2]
5. skill, an artist's or craftsman's touch.^[9][4]
6. quality, rank: marfă de mâna întâi “first-rate goods”.^[9][4]
7. (card games) the player whose turn it is to play or deal.^[4]

Word family

• mânuță
• mânui
• înmâna
• îndemână
• îndemânatic
• neîndemânatic
• sumână

Related words

• mâner
• mânecă
• mănușă
• mănunchi
• Aromanian mãnã
• Latin manus

Usage notes

A separate, obsolete word mână occurs only in mâna anului, a figure used in calendars to find the weekday on which each month begins; it is borrowed from Modern Greek μήν (mín, “month”) and is recorded in 1814.^[3][2]

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 Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1467
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mînă
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. mînă
5. ^ a b c d Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 93
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5339
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 194
8. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
9. ^ a b c d e f Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 819
10. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 632
11. ^ 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 21:18