menține

Forms

menține (third-person singular present menține, past participle menținut, third-person subjunctive mențină), 3rd conjugation^[1] Heliade-Rădulescu wrote manțin: „Barbari sînt cei din cetăți ce legiuiesc și manțin sclavia femeii” “barbarians are those in the cities who make laws and maintain the enslavement of women”.^[2] MDA2 records the old variants manține and mănține and a colloquial infinitive mânținea;^[3][2] Caragiale wrote mînținea and minține.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French maintenir (“to maintain, keep up”), conjugated after the native verb ține “to hold”.^[4][2][3][1] The dictionaries of neologisms also compare Italian mantenere.^[5] The French verb goes back to Vulgar Latin *manūteneō (“to hold with the hand”), made of manus (“hand”) and teneō (“to hold”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record MDA2 and the DLR give is in the writings of Ion Heliade-Rădulescu, in the form manțin, with the sense “to keep up, keep in being”: lawmakers who keep women in slavery.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was to keep something as it is and make it last; the reflexive a se menține “to remain unchanged, to last” is recorded in the 19th century.^[2][4] Two senses are rare: to support a family or a person, and to assert firmly, as in Șăineanu's example mențin ce-am zis “I stand by what I said”, which DEX 1998 labels a Gallicism.^[4][6][7] The spelling settled on men- after a period of manține and mănține.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1865 – the reflexive s-au mănținut in a document printed in the Uricariul.^[2]
• 1929 – Șăineanu gives the sense “to assert” and derives the verb from French.^[6]
• 1986 – Marcu and Maneca derive it from French and compare Italian.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To keep something unchanged, in the state or form it has; by extension, to make it last.^[4][3][1]
2. (reflexive) To go on existing in the same way, to stay unchanged; to endure.^[4][3]
3. (rare) To support a family or a person.^[4][3]
4. (rare) To assert something firmly.^[4][6]

Word family

• menținere

Related words

• susține
• ține
• întreține

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. menține
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. 2, 1454
4. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 641
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. menține
6. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 394
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan” (1998), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, 2nd ed., București: Univers Enciclopedic, p. 620