mănăstire

Forms

mănăstire f (plural mănăstiri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic монастырь (monastyrĭ, “monastery”), the source DEX, MDA2 and the DLR give.^[2][3][4][1] The Slavonic word comes from Ancient Greek μοναστήριον (monastḗrion), originally “hermitage”, a noun from μοναστήριος (monastḗrios), formed on μονάζω (monázō, “to live alone”), from μόνος (mónos, “alone”).^[5][1] Tiktin names both the Greek and the Slavonic word.^[6] Ciorănescu, after Murnu, prefers a Greek form with /a/, Modern Greek μαναστήριον (manastírion), which reached Romanian partly through Slavonic.^[7]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian mînăstir and Megleno-Romanian mănăstir.^[7] The old variant monastire is, for Ciorănescu, an artificial form modelled on Greek.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1463, in a Slavonic–Romanian document.^[6] A Banat place name, Singeorg manastir, is recorded in 1503.^[8] In a Romanian text the word is first found in a document of 1602, „de svănta monastir” “from the holy monastery”.^[4][3] Vasile Lupu's Pravila of 1646 already has the modern form: „Suduiaște pre egumenul lui și pre mănăstire” “he curses his abbot and the monastery”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed close to the Greek one: a community of monks or nuns, and the church and cells where they live.^[2][4] In Bukovina the people call every church of stone or brick mănăstire and keep biserică for wooden ones.^[4][6] The name passed to a children's game in which one player stands on the shoulders of two others like a bell tower, and to the constellation Cassiopeia.^[4][3] In the Dobrogea it is a derisive name for a big, ugly horse.^[4] Moldovan speech uses it for the heart of a watermelon.^[9]

In history the mănăstiri închinate were the monasteries dedicated to a great foreign house, mostly on Mount Athos, whose lands were secularised under Cuza.^[10]

Timeline

• 1463 – first record, in a Slavonic–Romanian document.^[6]
• 1503 – the Banat place name Singeorg manastir.^[8]
• 1602 – monastir in a Romanian document.^[4][3]
• 1646 – mănăstire in Vasile Lupu's Pravila.^[4]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. monastery, convent: a religious house where monks or nuns live apart from the world under strict rules; also the group of buildings around its church.^[2][3]
2. A church served by monks.^[2][3]
3. (Bukovina) A church of stone or brick.^[4][3]
4. (popular, with the article) The constellation Cassiopeia.^[4][3]
5. (slang) A person without character.^[12]

Word family

• mănăstioară
• mănăstiresc

Related words

• monah
• Aromanian mînăstir

Usage notes

A se duce la mănăstire or a intra la mănăstire means “to become a monk or a nun”.^[2] The variant mânăstire is common, and monastire is old.^[2][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 628
3. ^ 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, 1452
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mănăstire
5. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mânăstíre
7. ^ a b c d 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. mînăstire
8. ^ a b Hațegan, Ioan (2013), Dicționar istoric al așezărilor din Banat, sec. XI–XX. Atestări documentare și cartografice, Timișoara, p. 247
9. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 174
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 379
11. ^ 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. mănăstiri
12. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. mănăstire