numi

Forms

numi (present numesc, third-person singular present numește, past participle numit) 4th conjugation^[1] Old texts also have a variant numeni: „De unde ne-am numenit de ne chemăm creștini” “whence we were named and are called Christians”, in an old text Tiktin quotes.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian nume + -i “to give a name”.^[3][4][5][1] The noun nume continues Latin nōmen (“name”).^[5] Ciorănescu explains the /u/ of the noun by the influence of număr or by an old confusion with nūmen (“divine will”).^[5]

The parallel Aromanian numescu is formed on numã in the same way.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), with the sense “to name, to call”;^[6] Tiktin cites it at the Epistle of James 2:7.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to give a name” is the oldest; the reflexive a se numi “to be called” followed, as in a text of 1794 which says that man is called “a small world”.^[2][7] The Romanian version of Neagoe Basarab's teachings has „De acum nu vă voi mai numi slugi, ci frați și prieteni” “from now on I will not call you servants, but brothers and friends”.^[7] The Bible of 1688 has „Numi cetatea pre numele fiiului lui Enoh” “he called the city after the name of his son Enoch”.^[7] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss numesc with Slavonic нарицаю “I name”.^[6]

From naming, the verb moved to calling someone by a description or a nickname, and to mentioning a person or thing.^[3][4] The sense “to appoint to a post” is in Pontbriant's dictionary of 1862: the king appointed him general.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[4][2]
• 1664 – numesc and numit in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[6]
• 1688 – about 85 occurrences of numi in the Bucharest Bible, from Genesis 1:5 on.^[9]
• 1801 – numesc glossed with Latin nomino in Klein's dictionary.^[10]
• 1862 – the sense “to appoint to a post”.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To name, to give a name, a description or a nickname to;^[11] (reflexive) to be called: Cum se numește satul? “What is the village called?”^[3][11]
2. (transitive) To mention, to bring up someone or something.^[3][4]
3. (reflexive) To consider oneself, or to be considered, as something.^[3]
4. (transitive) To appoint someone to a post; to confer a title or a rank: A fost numit director. “He was appointed director.”^[3][11]

Word family

• denumi
• numire
• numitor
• supranumi

Related words

• anumit
• nume
• Aromanian numescu

Usage notes

The usual question for someone's name is cum te numești? “what is your name?”, formally cum vă numiți?.^[1][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. numi
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 725
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 176
5. ^ a b c 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. nume
6. ^ a b c 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. numesc
7. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. numi
8. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 497
9. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 1:5
10. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 407
11. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. numi
12. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. numi