mulțumi

Forms

a mulțumi (third-person singular present mulțumește, past participle mulțumit), 4th conjugation^[1] Old and popular forms are mulțămi, mulțemi and mălțemi, and regionally munțămi and mânțămi.^[2][3] The Transylvanian mulțămi keeps the sense “to toast”: „Să fii, bade, sănătos, Că mi-ai mulțămit frumos!” “be well, lad, for you have drunk to me so nicely!” (a folk song).^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian la mulți ani (“(to) many years!”), the wish for long life, as the DLR, MDA2, NODEX and Wiktionary explain it.^[2][3][4][1] The view goes back to Crețu and is followed by Tiktin, the REW, Candrea and Scriban.^[5] The adjective of the phrase is the plural of mult, from Latin multus.^[5] The sources compare Modern Greek εἰς πολλὰ ἔτη (eis pollà étē, “(to) many years”), which in Greek also became a formula of thanks;^[6] Tiktin adds Megleno-Romanian spulaidisi (“to thank”) and Aromanian spulaite (“thanks”), words of the same pattern south of the Danube.^[7][5][3]

Ciorănescu rejects this: such compounds are not usual in Romanian, Transylvanian mulțam is only a dialect form of the verb's first person, and the Greek parallel does not explain the other senses of the verb.^[5] He derives it instead from mulțime, through a reconstructed ⟨*mulțimi⟩ and the old form mulțemi, as îndestula comes from destul.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1563, in Coresi's Apostol (the Praxiu).^[7] MDA2 dates it from Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Transylvania the verb, in the form mulțămi, still means to utter a wish to someone or to raise one's glass to them, the sense that fits the origin in a wish for long life.^[2][3] The main sense is to thank; from it come “to reward, to pay someone back” and “to satisfy, to please”, and the reflexive “to be content (with), not to ask for more”.^[8][7] The first-person mulțumesc works as a word of thanks and also as a polite refusal.^[8][6] Regionally it can mean “to owe (gratitude for something)”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1563 – in Coresi's Apostol, the first record.^[7]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[3]
• 1649 – mulțemi in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1682 – the participle mulțămit “grateful” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, with the dative) To thank, to express gratitude for a kindness, a gift or a service: Îi mulțumesc pentru ajutor. Mulțumesc! is used on its own as “thank you”.^[8][1]
2. (transitive) To reward, to repay someone.^[8]
3. (transitive) To satisfy, to please: Răspunsul nu l-a mulțumit.^[8][1]
4. (reflexive) To be content, to ask for nothing more: Se mulțumește cu puțin. (popular) To give something up, to have had enough of it.^[8]
5. (Transylvania) To utter a wish to someone; to drink someone's health.^[3][2]

Word family

• mulțumire
• mulțumitor
• mulțumit
• mulțumită
• nemulțumit
• nemulțumire

Related words

• mult
• mulțime
• la mulți ani

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mulțumi
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 75
4. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. mulțumi
5. ^ a b c d e 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. mult
6. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 412
7. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mulțumi
8. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 682
9. ^ 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. mulțemi
10. ^ 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. mulțămit