omenire

Forms

omenire f (plural omeniri)^[1] The Lexicon de la Buda (1825) writes it Omenire with the plural omeniri.^[2]

Etymology

It is the verbal noun of omeni, formed from Romanian omeni + -re, with the long infinitive ending.^[3][4][5][1] The verb is formed on om (“man, human being”), which continues Latin homō (“human being”).^[6][7] DEX derives the main sense, mankind, directly from the noun, and only the old sense of humaneness from the verb.^[8] Scriban takes it from the plural oameni.^[9]

A parallel formation is found south of the Danube: Aromanian uminiri.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from Grigore Ureche's chronicle, about 1640, where the people of the country could no longer bear a ruler's fără-omenirea “inhumanity” and wickedness.^[5] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of Mardarie (1649) already lists it.^[11] In church texts it meant the incarnation: MDA2 and the DLR first quote that sense from Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints (1682–1686), on the fortieth day after the birth and incarnation of the Lord.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The word followed the senses of the verb omeni, which in religious use meant to take human form and elsewhere to honour or to treat someone with humanity.^[12] Its first senses were the act of becoming man, the incarnation, and human nature as opposed to the divine one: an 18th-century book of services says that Christ suffered not in his divinity but in his omenire.^[4] It could also name a human being as opposed to a beast, and the quality of being humane.^[3][4]

The sense “mankind, the human race”, the main one today, is quoted from 1773 on, and Heliade, Bălcescu, Alexandrescu, Eminescu and Arghezi use it.^[4] From it came “a great crowd of people, the public”, quoted from 1820.^[4][8] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 still gives both human nature and the human race.^[2] Transylvanian writers used omenime instead, a form Scriban says the people themselves did not use.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1640 – fără-omenirea “inhumanity” in Grigore Ureche's chronicle.^[5]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1682–1686 – “incarnation” in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.^[3][4]
• 1773 – judecata omenirii “the judgement of mankind”.^[4]
• 1776 – “human nature” as opposed to the divine, in a Mineion.^[4][5]
• 1820 – “a crowd of people”.^[4]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda gives “human nature” and “the human race”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. mankind, humanity: all the people on Earth, the human race; umanitate, omenime.^[8][3]
2. A great crowd of people; the public: Toată omenirea din piață se uita la ei.^[8][4]
3. (obsolete) Humaneness, omenie.^[8][3]
4. (obsolete, religion) The incarnation; human nature as opposed to the divine.^[3][4]
5. (rare) hospitality.^[3][4]

Related words

• om
• omenie
• omenesc
• omenime
• Aromanian uminiri

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. 465
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 209
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. omenire
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. omeníre
6. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 740
7. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 185
8. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 741
9. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 899
10. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 1058
11. ^ 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. omenire
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 208