mărunt

Forms

mărunt m or n (feminine singular măruntă, masculine plural mărunți, feminine/neuter plural mărunte)^[1] Old and regional texts, in Banat and Moldavia, have mănunt: „Jigănii mari și mănunte” “beasts great and small” (Dosoftei's verse psalter, 1673).^[2][3] Cantemir writes of marks in the margin „cu slove mai mănunte” “in smaller letters”.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin minūtus (“small”), the past participle of minuō (“to make smaller”).^{[3][5][2][1][6]} The regular result was mănunt, with the /n/ carried into the first syllable, and the first /n/ then became /r/ by dissimilation.^[3][7][1]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian minut and Megleno-Romanian minut.^[3] Romance has Italian minuto, Occitan menut, French menu, Spanish menudo and Portuguese miúdo.^[3][6] Romanian later borrowed the same Latin word as minut.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a print of Coresi of 1567.^[2] MDA2 dates it from Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is “small”, said of things that are small and many together or made of small parts: fine rain, fine grain, wood cut small.^[2][8] From there come the senses short of stature, walking with short quick steps, and small coins.^[8][5] Small change was mărunte or bani mărunți.^[9][2] Vite mărunte, “small cattle”, are sheep and goats.^[5] Figuratively it means of little importance, and of people, petty and narrow-minded.^[8]

The adverbial use, “in small pieces”, is old.^[2] The feminine măruntă, from the short steps, names a folk dance and its tune.^[8][5] Regional senses include vin mărunt “good wine”.^[5] In Muntenia, brânză măruntă is fresh cow's cheese.^[10] The old phrase cu măruntul meant “in small quantities, by retail”, the modern cu amănuntul.^[5]

The plural măruntaie (“entrails”) continues Latin minūtālia (“small things”) separately.^[3][11] Bulgarian borrowed the word from Romanian for a small contribution.^[3]

Timeline

• 1567 – in a print of Coresi.^[2]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[5]
• 1649 – the plural mărunți in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1673 – mănunte in Dosoftei's verse psalter.^[2]
• 1688 – mărunt and its forms in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Very small, of reduced size, made of tiny parts, fine, also cut or broken into small pieces.^[8][5][1]
2. (of money) In coins of small value, as small change.^[8]
3. Short of stature, scund.^[8][5]
4. (of walking) With short quick steps.^[8][5]
5. (of living beings) Very young, small.^[8][5]
6. (figurative) Of little importance, petty, of low rank.^[8]
7. (figurative, of people) Narrow-minded, ungenerous.^[8][14]

Word family

• măruntaie
• mărunțel
• mărunți
• mărunțeli
• mărunțiș
• mărunțișar

Related words

• minut
• amănunt

Usage notes

Multe și mărunte, “many and small”, means all sorts of things.^[8][9] The variant mănunt is popular.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mărunt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. mărunt
4. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mărunt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1459
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5600
7. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 629
9. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 789
10. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. s.v. mărunt
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5596
12. ^ 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. mărunți
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ieșirea 16:14
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. mărunt