mângâia

Forms

mângâia (present mângâi, third-person singular mângâie, past participle mângâiat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *manganeō (“to bewitch”), from Ancient Greek μαγγανεύω (manganeúō, “to use charms or philtres”), from μάγγανον (mánganon, “means of charming, philtre”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} Ciorănescu gives the Latin step as probable.^[2] Candrea and Densusianu count it among the few Greek words that entered the Latin of the Balkans early, with the first sense “to bewitch with a philtre”.^[7] Ciorănescu rejects Cihac's derivation from Old Church Slavonic.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century (Psalm 68).^[8] In the Psaltirea Scheiană it still has the old sense “to charm”: „nu aude glasul măngănietoriului, măngăiatu măngăie-se de preamăndrul” “it does not hear the voice of the charmer, of the wise one who charms” (Psalm 57).^[5][4] MDA2 dates the word to this psalter.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Candrea and Densusianu trace the senses from “to bewitch” to “to seduce, deceive”, which then lost its bad sense.^[7] In the old texts it also meant to exhort or advise: the Codicele Voronețean says that Paul went through those parts „și-i mângăe toți cu cuvente multe” “and exhorted them all with many words”.^[4] It meant to speak kindly to someone, and to comfort: the Psaltirea Scheiană has „pomeniiu giudețele tale de veacu, Doamne, și măngăiaiu-me” “I remembered thy judgments of old, O Lord, and was comforted”.^[5]

The sense “to stroke, caress” belongs to the modern literary language: Filimon has a captain stroking a hound, and Eminescu a girl stroking her temple.^[5] Ironically it also means “to beat”.^[9][10] The word is used everywhere except in northern Transylvania.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 68), the first record.^[8]
• c. 1563–1583 – mângăe “exhorts” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4]
• 1570 – mîngîiară in Coresi's Psalter (Psalm 22:5).^[11]
• c. 1573–1578 – “to charm” and “to comfort” in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3][5]
• 1581 – the derivative mângănietură “consolation” in the Palia.^[2]
• 1688 – “to comfort” in the Bucharest Bible (Genesis 37:35).^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To caress: to touch someone lightly and repeatedly with the palm as a sign of affection; to fondle.^[9][3][1]
2. (ironic, colloquial) To beat, to hit.^[9][10]
3. (transitive and reflexive) To console: to try to ease someone's grief, pain or suffering; to comfort.^[9][3][1]
4. To delight, to charm: Muzica îi mângâia auzul. “The music delighted his ear.”^[9][12]
5. (obsolete) To bewitch; to advise, exhort.^[3][4]

Word family

• mângâiere
• mângâietor
• mângâios
• nemângâiat

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. mîngîia
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, 1470
4. ^ 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. mîngîia
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mângâia
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5297
7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 186
8. ^ 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 68:25
9. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 633
10. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. mângâia
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 22:5
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. mângâia