mâna

Forms

mâna (third-person singular present mână, past participle mânat, third-person subjunctive mâne), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin minō (“to drive (animals)”), a by-form of minor (“to threaten”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} Lewis and Short explain the sense “to drive” by the threatening shouts of cattle drivers; the verb is certain only in later Latin.^[7][8]

The word survives in Aromanian as min “to move” and in Istro-Romanian as mirå “to drive cattle”.^{[2][9][10][11]} The Romance cognates include Italian menare, Occitan menar, Catalan menar and French mener.^[2] The sense of driving animals is shared by French, Occitan and Italian dialects.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578), at Psalm 17:38.^[13][3] DER lists “to pursue” as its oldest sense, now obsolete.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The central sense is to drive animals or a cart, to urge them on; from it came figurative uses, to push someone to act, and the popular intransitive “to go fast, hurry”.^[4][5][3] In popular speech it also means to take along, to send someone somewhere, and to set in motion.^[4][2] Tiktin notes the absolute use “to drive a carriage”: nu știe să mâie “he cannot drive”.^[13]

Colloquial phrases include a mâna porcii la jir “to drive the pigs to the beechnuts”, that is, to snore, and mână măgarul! “drive the donkey!”, telling someone to get going.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – first recorded in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3][13]
• 1773 – „bărbații ce mâna boii” “the men who drove the oxen”.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To drive or guide an animal or an animal-drawn vehicle; to goad it on: Țăranul mâna caii spre sat.^[4][3][1]
2. (figurative, colloquial) To push someone to act in a certain way.^[4]
3. (intransitive, popular) To go quickly, to hurry.^[4]
4. (popular) To take or carry along with oneself.^[4]
5. (popular) To send someone somewhere or to do something.^[4][2][1]
6. (popular) To set in motion, to work something.^[4]
7. (obsolete) To pursue, follow.^[2][1]

Related words

• Aromanian min
• Latin minor

Usage notes

The spelling mâna is also the articled form of mână “hand”.^[1] MDA2 lists a popular mâna “to bewitch” from charms, which the DLR calls of unknown origin, and mâna as a variant of mânca and of amâna.^[3][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. mîna
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1466
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 632
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mâna
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5585
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. mino
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. minō
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 682
10. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula, p. s.v. mirå
11. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 125
12. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. mîna
13. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mâna