miazănoapte

Forms

miazănoapte f (uncountable)^[1] The oldest texts write miadzănoapte: the Codicele Voronețean says of Paul „și tinse cuvîntu pănră la miadzănoapte” “and he drew out his speech until midnight”.^[2] The definite form is miazănoaptea; the old genitive and dative is miezii nopții, as in the Bible of 1688.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mediam noctem (“midnight”), the accusative of media nox, with nox (“night”).^[1][2][4][5] Ciorănescu treats it among the compounds of miez, from medius, whose feminine media survives in Romanian only in compounds as miază.^[6] Tiktin gives the same Latin base.^[3]

The same compound survives south of the Danube: Aromanian njadzã-noapti.^[1][7] Romance has parallel forms: Italian mezzanotte, Istriot miezanuotto, Romansh mesanotg, French minuit, Catalan mitjanit, Spanish medianoche and Portuguese meia-noite.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean, a 16th-century manuscript of the Acts and Epistles, in the sense “midnight”.^[4][2] Coresi's Psalter of 1570 already has it as a direction, in Psalm 106:3, beside east, west and the sea.^[8][3]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant the middle of the night, midnight, as in the Tetraevanghel of 1574: „În miazănoapte strigare fu” “at midnight there was a cry”.^[2] DLR also quotes an adverbial use from the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, „Miadzănoaptea sculaiu” “at midnight I rose”.^[2] From the 16th century it also named the north, the quarter of the sky opposite the midday sun, and then the lands and peoples of the north.^[2][4][3] The time sense gave way to miezul nopții, and Tiktin notes that by his time the compound was used almost only for the direction.^[6][3] In the modern language it is an old or poetic word for the north, which nord has replaced.^[1][5]

Folk belief made Miazănoapte an evil spirit that roams the crossroads from sunset to midnight;^[9][10][4] Eminescu's tale has Făt-Frumos strike it with his mace.^[9][10][4] In Banat and Transylvania the name is given to cow-wheat (Melampyrum), a plant that, Șăineanu says, was thought to protect robbers.^[9][4][3]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – miadzănoapte “midnight” in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[4][2]
• 1570 – the north, in Coresi's Psalter (Psalm 106:3).^[8]
• c. 1573–1578 – miadzănoapte in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[8][3]
• 1574 – “midnight” in the Tetraevanghel.^[2]
• c. 1660–1670 – in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicon Lex.St.^[11]
• 1688 – 73 times in the Bucharest Bible, mostly for the north.^[12]
• 1825 – the Lexicon of Buda gives both “midnight” and “north”, and a plant name.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The north, one of the four cardinal points, in the direction of the Pole Star; by extension the northern part of the globe, a country or a town.^[5][4][1]
2. The peoples or lands of the north.^[5][10]
3. (dated, popular) midnight.^[5][4]
4. (folklore) An evil spirit abroad at midnight.^[4][9]
5. (regional, botany) A name of the cow-wheat species (Melampyrum).^[4]

Related words

• miazăzi
• miez
• miază
• noapte
• Aromanian njadzã-noapti

Usage notes

The locution de miazănoapte means “northern”.^[10] The word pairs with miazăzi “south”.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. miazănoapte
3. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. miez
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 648
6. ^ a b 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. miez
7. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 745
8. ^ a b c 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 106:3
9. ^ a b c d Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 397
10. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 70
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. miazănoapte
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Exodus 26:18
13. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 383
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. miazănoapte