om

Forms

om m (plural oameni)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin homō (“human being, man”); the plural continues hominēs.^[2][3][4][1] Pușcariu compares the plural with Italian uomini.^[5] De Vaan derives the Latin word from Proto-Indo-European *dʰǵʰ(e)m-ōn (“earthling, human”).^[6]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian om, Megleno-Romanian uom and Istro-Romanian om, with the plurals oamini and omir.^[2][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian uomo, French homme, Catalan home, Spanish hombre and Portuguese homem.^[2][5][4] Ciorănescu notes that the word is general across the Romanian dialects.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is in the oldest texts: MDA2 cites the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[3] Neacșu's letter of 1521 has it: „Au venit un om de la Nicopol” “a man came from Nicopolis”.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

Ciorănescu lists the senses “human being”, “man, adult”, “husband”, “workman” and, in the plural, “people of standing”.^[2] Pușcariu notes that, unlike French on, Romanian om never became an impersonal pronoun “one”, but that it does mean “man” as opposed to “woman”.^[5] Old texts use omul său for someone's agent or envoy, and Neculce atâta om for “so many troops”.^[10] Ca oamenii means “properly, as one should”, and din oameni “from a good family”.^[10]

Folk belief knows oamenii de apă, water people without speech, and fairy tales omul de flori, a man made of flowers.^[3] The diminutive omușor “little man” also names the uvula, a Balkan pattern that Ciorănescu compares with Albanian njeri (“man”) beside njerith (“uvula”) and Bulgarian мъж (măž, “man”) beside мъжец (măžec, “uvula”).^[2][5] Among the derivatives are omenesc “human”, omenie “decency, kindness” and omenire “mankind”.^[2]

Timeline

• early 16th century – in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3]
• 1521 – „un om de la Nicopol” in Neacșu's letter.^[9]
• 1649 – the plural oameni in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A human being, a person: the social being that thinks and speaks, and ca de la om la om “frankly, as between friends”.^[12][1]
2. A decent, honest person: un om și jumătate “a first-rate person”.^[12]
3. Someone's man: a person in someone's service or trust.^[12]
4. A person of standing; a grown-up.^[12]
5. A man, as opposed to a woman, and omul meu “my husband”; in the vocative, omule! as a familiar address.^[12][1]
6. Anyone, someone: Omul nu poate ști totul. “One can't know everything.”^[12]
7. (popular, with the article) The constellation Hercules.^[12]

Word family

• omenesc
• omenește
• omeni
• omenie
• omenire
• omenos
• neomenie
• omușor

Related words

• uman
• Aromanian om
• Latin homō

Usage notes

Old texts also have the plurals omeni and omene.^[3] Colloquially om is also a form of the future auxiliary, “we will”: om vedea “we'll see” for vom vedea.^[13][1] The learned element -om “tumour” is a separate word, from French and Italian -ome.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. om
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 208
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4170
5. ^ a b c d Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 107
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 806
8. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 131
9. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. de 3
10. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. om
11. ^ 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. oameni
12. ^ 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. 1, 740
13. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 899