mulțumire

Forms

mulțumire f (plural mulțumiri)^[1]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of mulțumi (“to thank; to satisfy”), formed from Romanian mulțumi + -re.^[1][2][3][4] The verb comes from the wish la mulți ani (“many years”), said when greeting and toasting someone.^[5][1] MDA2 compares the Greek wish Modern Greek εἰς πολλὰ ἔτη (eis pollá éti).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1643, in Varlaam's Cazania.^[2] The New Testament of 1648 has „nu priimireți pre el în casă și de mulțemire nu grăireți” “do not receive him into the house and say no mulțemire to him”.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The noun shares the history of its verb, which went from a greeting and a toast to thanks and to satisfaction.^[3][4] The thanks sense is the commonest in the old texts: a translator of 1765 gives thanks to God and to the man who urged him to the work.^[2][4] An old legal sense, “approval of someone's deed”, is defined in the Pravila of 1646.^[4][3] The sense of contentment and joy is in the New Testament of 1648 and became the main one in the 19th century: Costinescu gives the gratitude, the words of thanks and the contentment of the satisfied man.^[4][6] In popular use the word also meant a reward or payment.^[3][7]

Old and popular forms show the vowel of the verb's variants: mulțămire, mulțemire, mulțimire.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1643 – the first record, in Varlaam's Cazania.^[2]
• 1646 – “approval”, in the Pravila.^[4]
• 1648 – mulțemire in the New Testament.^[4][3]
• 1765 – mulțămire “thanks” in a translator's preface.^[2][4]
• 1870 – Costinescu lists the senses “thanks”, “contentment” and “gratitude”.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. thanks, gratitude: the act of thanking, and the words or gesture with which one thanks;^[5][3][1] mulțumiri “thanks”.^[5][3][1]
2. satisfaction, contentment, pleasure, joy; something that gives pleasure.^[5][3][1]
3. (popular) A reward, a recompense.^[5][3]
4. (obsolete) Approval of someone's actions.^[3][4]

Word family

• nemulțumire

Related words

• mulțumi
• mulțumit
• mulțumită
• recunoștință

Usage notes

DEX gives mulțămire as a regional variant.^[5] The plural mulțumiri is the usual form for words of thanks: Vă aduc mulțumiri pentru ajutor “I thank you for your help”.^[5][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. mulțumire
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mulțumire
5. ^ 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. 682
6. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 124
7. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 143