mișuna

Forms

mișuna (third-person singular present mișună, past participle mișunat, third-person subjunctive mișune), 1st conjugation^[1] Regional variants are mișina and the fourth-conjugation mișui (present mișuie) and mișuni;^[2][3][4] Banat has mișini “to gather in great numbers”.^[2][3][4] The oldest form is mâșâi, in the Pravoslavnica învățătură of 1794.^[5][2]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[6][5] In the view of Candrea and Densusianu it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *messiōnō (“to reap, to harvest”), formed on messiō (“harvesting, reaping”), which they compare with French moissonner and Occitan meisonar.^[4] In their account the regular forms would have been a present ⟨*meșun⟩ and an infinitive ⟨*meșina⟩, which were levelled by vowel assimilation to ⟨mișuna⟩ and ⟨mișina⟩.^[4] The DLRM and Wiktionary follow this view.^[7][1] The Latin noun is formed on metō (“to mow, reap”).^[8]

The Academy dictionaries give no etymon and only compare the noun mișină “swarm; a mouse's or hamster's winter store”.^[6][2][3] DEX and MDA2 in turn compare that noun with Russian мышина (myšina).^[6][2] Tiktin sent the verb to mișeniță “a swarming place, a nest”, which he linked to Old Church Slavonic мѣсити (měsiti, “to mix”).^[5][9] The revised Tiktin adds a link to Old Church Slavonic мꙑшь (myšĭ, “mouse”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the variant mâșâi in the Pravoslavnica învățătură of 1794, which MDA2 also gives as the first record of mișui.^[5][2] MDA2 dates mișuna itself only by a quotation from Vlahuță, about threshing-floor peasants who swarm in the dust of two threshing machines.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The verb is used of many beings moving to and fro together: people in a crowd, insects, snakes, crayfish in a river.^[3][10] Construed with de, the place itself is the subject: a platform or a town mișună de lume “teems with people”.^[3][10] Rarely it is said of a single person who goes about from place to place.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1794 – mâșâi in the Pravoslavnica învățătură, the first record.^[5][2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (of many beings) To move about in great numbers; to swarm, to teem.^[6][1]
2. (of a place, with de) To teem with: Piața mișuna de oameni.^[10][3]
3. (rare, of one person) To go about from place to place.^[2][3]

Related words

• mișui
• mișină
• mișeniță

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 28
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mișuna
4. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. mișuna
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. mișuná
6. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 661
7. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 505
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. míșeniță
10. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 95