mândri

Forms

mândri (reflexive a se mândri; third-person singular present mândrește, past participle mândrit) 4th conjugation^[1][2] Klein's dictionary of 1801 has the first person mandrésc and the reflexive me mandrésc, glossed with Latin superbio.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian mândru (“proud; formerly wise”) + -i.^[2][4][5][1] Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of the adjective.^[6]

The base adjective is from Old Church Slavonic мѫдръ (mǫdrŭ, “wise”), from Proto-Slavic *mǫdrъ; compare Polish mądry and Russian мудрый (mudryj).^[1][6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1563, in Coresi's Praxiu;^[5][4] MDA2 dates it to a Coresi print of 1564.^[5][4] In Coresi the verb still kept the sense of the old adjective “wise”: transitively it meant “to think, to ponder” (ce mândrești “what you are thinking”) and, as a factitive, “to make wiser”.^[7][4]

Semantic evolution

The old senses all come from mândru “wise”.^[7] Besides “to think” and “to make wiser”, Coresi has a reflexive “to cling to, to be attached to”: cine se mândrește lumiei, glossed in the text itself as “whoever loves the ways of this world”.^[7] A 17th-century prayer book uses the verb as “to magnify, to glorify”.^[7][4]

As mândru moved from “wise” to “proud”, the reflexive verb came to mean “to be proud of, to boast of” (with cu), and “to be haughty, to give oneself airs”.^[7][6] A 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicon already pairs the verb with Slavonic тщеславие “vainglory”.^[8] Negruzzi's line „Românul cât trăiește, Tot cu doina se mândrește” “as long as he lives, the Romanian takes pride in his doina” is the quotation the dictionaries give for the modern sense.^[5][9] In Maramureș the reflexive can also mean “to make oneself beautiful”, matching the regional sense “beautiful” of the adjective.^[10]

Timeline

• 1563 – first record, in Coresi's Praxiu.^[5]
• 1564 – Coresi, “to think” and “to make wiser”.^[4][7]
• 17th century – “to glorify”, in a prayer book.^[7]
• 1664 – mîndrea beside Slavonic “vainglory” in the Petersburg lexicon.^[8]
• 1801 – mandrésc “I am proud” in Klein's dictionary.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To be proud of someone or something; to boast, to pride oneself (on, cu): Se mândrește cu fiul ei. “She is proud of her son.”^[2][1]
2. (reflexive, dated and popular) To be haughty, to give oneself airs.^[2][11]
3. (reflexive, regional, Maramureș) To make oneself beautiful.^[10]
4. (obsolete) To think; to make wiser; to glorify.^[4][7]

Related words

• făli
• lăuda
• mândru
• mândrie

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 633
3. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 395
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1469
5. ^ 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. mândri
6. ^ a b c 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. mîndru
7. ^ 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. mîndri
8. ^ a b 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. mîndrea
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 103
10. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. mândri
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. mândri