nebunesc

Forms

nebunesc m or n (feminine singular nebunească, plural nebunești)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian nebun + -esc, “crazy” with the adjective suffix.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} nebun is itself made of the negative prefix ne- and bun (“good”).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1567–1568, in a homiliary printed by Coresi.^[5] In Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581 the old sense is “wicked, base”: „judecă pre el pentru năravul cel nebunesc al lui” “he judges him for his wicked habit”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The adjective followed nebun, which first meant “not good, wicked” and later “mad”.^[2] The old senses “wicked” and “base” have gone out of use, and in Transylvania it was said of poisonous mushrooms.^[3][2] In the 17th century Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 uses nebunească to render a Slavonic word for foolish talk.^[6]

The modern sense, “showing a lack of reason, senseless”, is found in Cantemir and in the 18th- and 19th-century chronicles and writers: Negruzzi wrote of a king's “mad arrogance”, nebuneasca lui sumeție.^[3][5][7] By extension it came to mean “exceedingly great, intense”, as of spending or speed.^[3][4] In regional use mere nebunești are a variety of very large, red, sweet apples.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1567–1568 – first record, in a homiliary of Coresi.^[5]
• 1581 – năravul cel nebunesc “the wicked habit” in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[3][2]
• 1649 – nebunească in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[6]
• 1825 – nebunescu “foolish, insane”, with Latin stultus, insanus, in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[8]
• 1870 – “belonging to a madman” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Showing a lack of reason or sense; reckless, senseless: un plan nebunesc “a crazy plan”.^[4][10][2]
2. Far beyond the usual intensity, size or amount; excessive: o viteză nebunească “a breakneck speed”.^[4][2]
3. (obsolete) Wicked, base.^[2][3]
4. (regional, Transylvania; of mushrooms) poisonous.^[2][3]

Word family

• nebunește

Related words

• nebun
• nebunie
• înnebuni

Usage notes

Nebunesc is also an old form of the first person singular present of the verb a nebuni “to go mad”, today înnebuni.^[11][8] The adverb is nebunește “madly”.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 116
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. nebunesc
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 697
5. ^ 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. nebunesc
6. ^ a b 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. nebunească
7. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 181
8. ^ a b 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. 420
9. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 142
10. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. nebunesc
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 860
12. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 22