mințitor

Forms

mințitor m or n (feminine singular mințitoare, masculine plural mințitori, feminine/neuter plural mințitoare)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian minți + -tor.^[2][3][4][1] minți “to lie” is from Latin mentior (“to lie”).^[5]

Ciorănescu calls it a rare word formed within Romanian; the REW instead takes it from Latin, as “liar”, listed beside Italian mentitore and French menteur.^[5][6] Wiktionary gives both explanations, the Latin one as Vulgar Latin *mentitor.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Budai-Deleanu's Romanian–German lexicon of 1818.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 sends the reader to mincinos, the usual word for “lying”.^[7][4] Galaction used it figuratively of the deceptive clear sky before a sudden storm.^[4][8] It remains a rare word.^[2]

Timeline

• 1818 – in Budai-Deleanu's lexicon, the first record.^[3]
• 1870 – in Costinescu's dictionary, as a synonym of mincinos.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (rare) lying, deceitful, misleading.^[2][3][1]

Related words

• minți
• mincinos
• minciună

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 657
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 19
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mințitor
5. ^ 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. minți
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5511
7. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 100
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 86