ninge

Forms

ninge (third-person singular present ninge, past participle nins, third-person subjunctive ningă), 3rd conjugation^[1] A regional variant linge is recorded.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ningō (“to snow”), whose infinitive the dictionaries cite.^{[3][2][4][5][6][7]} The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sneygʷʰ- (“to snow”).^[1]

Ciorănescu compares a Calabrian word for “snow”, and Candrea and Densusianu list dialect forms of central Italy and Savoy that continue the same verb.^[3][8] Ungureanu points to forms in the Marche and to a line of Jacopone da Todi.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, an old Romanian–Latin glossary, which MDA2 dates to about 1650–1700 and Tiktin to about 1670.^[2][5] The Academy dictionary quotes ningea foarte “it snowed hard” from a chronicle of the early 18th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The verb is impersonal: it means “to snow”, with no subject or with neaua “the snow” as its subject in folk verse.^[4][10] Used transitively it means “to cover with snow”, and figuratively “to let fall like snowflakes”.^[4][2] Snow on the head stands for grey hair: a-i ninge în barbă (or pe cap, în păr) is “to go grey”, and e nins în luna lui mai is said of someone who went grey young.^[4][2]

Several sayings pair snow with rain: parcă îi tot ninge și îi plouă is said of a person who is always gloomy, and ningă-plouă means “whatever happens”.^[4][2][5] Tiktin also records the transitive sense, with blossoms falling like snow.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1650-1700 – ninge in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, the first record.^[2][5]
• early 18th century – ningea foarte “it snowed hard” in a chronicle.^[6]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda, glossed with Latin ningit.^[11]
• 1839 – au nins în ținutul nostru mult “it has snowed a lot in our district” in a periodical.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (impersonal) To snow.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To cover with snow.^[4][2]
3. (figurative) To fall like snowflakes; to let something fall in this way, like sifting.^[4][12]
4. (figurative) To turn someone's hair grey.^[2][12]

Word family

• ninsoare
• ningău

Usage notes

A-i ninge în barbă “to go grey” and (parcă) îi tot ninge și îi plouă “(he looks as if) it keeps snowing and raining on him”, said of a sullen person, are fixed expressions.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 157
3. ^ 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. ninge
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 717
5. ^ 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. nínge
6. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. nínge
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5926
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. ninge
9. ^ Ungureanu, Dan (2024), Istoria limbii române, Chișinău: Cartier, p. 345
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 212
11. ^ 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. 447
12. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. ninge