nebun

Forms

nebun m or n (feminine singular nebună, masculine plural nebuni, feminine/neuter plural nebune)^[1] MDA2 records the regional forms nabun and năbun.^[2] The DLR adds neabun and năbun from the linguistic atlas.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Romanian ne- + bun (“good”): the negative prefix added to the adjective, so that its first meaning was “not good, bad”.^{[2][4][3][1][5]} bun is from Latin bonus (“good”).^[6][1] Șăineanu explained the shift to “mad” by an old view of the insane as obstinate and wicked people.^[7]

The chess sense “bishop” is a semantic loan from French fou, which goes back through Spanish alfil to Arabic الفيل (al-fīl, “the elephant, chess bishop”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500–1520), where a sinner stands on every way that is nebun, “not good, evil”.^[2][3] A text of about 1550 speaks of a cloud of fire coming from “wicked men” (oamenilor nebuni).^[3] Tiktin's earliest citation is the Codicele Voronețean, at 1 Peter 2:15.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the word kept the literal sense “not good”, which gave the senses “sinful”, “stubborn”, “lazy”, “wicked” and “worthless”, now archaic or popular.^[2][3] The sense “foolish, senseless” is also old, and “insane, mad” became the main sense of the modern language.^[2][4][8] From it come casă de nebuni “madhouse”, nebun după “crazy about, madly in love with”, and the intensive sense “immense, wild”: un succes nebun, o ură nebună.^[8][5][4]

Regionally, poisonous mushrooms are bureți nebuni and an unnamed kind of large apple mere nebune.^[8][2][5] As a noun the word also named a court jester.^[4][5] In the chess sense it occurs in Alecsandri's poems.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – “not good, evil”, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean (1 Peter 2:15).^[8]
• 1573 – nebuni “fools” in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[9]
• 1589 – nebunul “the fool” in Coresi's psalter.^[10]
• 19th century – the chess sense “bishop”, in Alecsandri.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. insane, mad, suffering from a mental illness.^[4][2][1]
2. Senseless, reckless, lacking sound judgement.^[4][2]
3. Restless, wild, frisky: un copil nebun.^[4][2]
4. Showing madness: o idee nebună.^[4]
5. Without limits, immense, terrible: o viteză nebună.^[4]
6. (old and popular) Not good, bad.^[4][2]

Noun

1. A madman or madwoman.^[4][1]
2. (rare) A jester at a royal or noble court.^[4][5]
3. (chess) A bishop.^[4][1]

Word family

• nebunie
• nebunesc

Related words

• bun

Usage notes

Set expressions include a fi nebun după cineva “to be madly in love with someone”, ești nebun? expressing disapproval or surprise, and a face pe nebunul “to put on airs” or, colloquially, “to play dumb”.^[4][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 116
3. ^ 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. nebun
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 697
5. ^ a b c d e Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 860
6. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 259
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 422
8. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. nebun
9. ^ 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 93:8
10. ^ 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 13:1