plânge

Forms

plânge (first-person singular present plâng, past participle plâns), 3rd conjugation^[1] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the word was written плынӂе.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin plangō (“to strike; to beat one's breast, lament”).^[2][3][1][4] It survives in all four branches: Aromanian plângu, Megleno-Romanian plǫng and Istro-Romanian plấnže.^[2][5][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian piangere, Occitan planher, French plaindre, Catalan planyer and Spanish plañir.^[2][4]

The Latin verb first meant “to strike”, then “to beat one's breast in mourning”, and in imperial times “to lament, to weep”.^[8][9] De Vaan derives it from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂k- (“to strike”), with a nasal present.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the early 16th-century Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, which has plânseră “they wept” (Psalm 125:7).^[11] MDA2 dates the word to the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), which has the imperative „plângeți” “weep”.^[3][12]

Semantic evolution

Tiktin and the DLR record both the intransitive “to weep” and the transitive “to mourn, bewail” from the old texts on.^[13][12] From mourning the dead the verb came to mean “to pity” and “to regret”; the reflexive a se plânge “to complain” led to “to lodge a complaint”, the sense of the noun plângere “complaint” in law.^[2][14] Figuratively the wind may plânge, “wail”.^[15]

deplânge “to deplore” was formed after French déplorer.^[2]

Timeline

• early 16th century – plânge and plânseră in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first records.^[16][11]
• c. 1551–1558 – plângea in the Psaltirea Voronețeană.^[11]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3][12]
• 1570 – plângea and plângem in Coresi's Psalter.^[17][18]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[13][19]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To weep, to cry, from pain, sorrow, emotion or joy.^[14][3]
2. (transitive) To mourn a dead person or a loss; to regret; to pity: Îl plângea pe fratele ei.^[14]
3. (reflexive, a se plânge) To complain, lament; to make a formal complaint.^[14][2]
4. (figurative) Of the wind or an instrument: to make a mournful sound.^[15]

Word family

• plângăcios
• plângător
• plângere
• plâns
• plânset
• plânsoare
• deplânge

Related words

• Latin plangō

Usage notes

A-și plânge păcatele means “to repent”, and a-i plânge cuiva de milă “to feel deep pity for someone”.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. plînge
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 413
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6572
5. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 867
6. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 227
7. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 125:7
12. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. plînge
13. ^ 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. plânge
14. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 830
15. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. plânge
16. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 29:14
17. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 34:17
18. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 94:6
19. ^ Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 354