plănui

Forms

plănui (third-person singular present plănuiește, past participle plănuit) 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian plan (“plan”) + -ui.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} According to Ciorănescu, plan is from French plan;^[5][7] MDA2 also names Latin plānus and German Plan.^[5][7] Tiktin dates the noun from 1785.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1832, in a text he cites as Cornelli, with the sense “to make plans”.^[6] The earliest quotations in DLR are from Asachi: „n-au încetat a plănui mii mijloace de a o putea mântui din sclăvie” “they never stopped devising a thousand ways to free her from slavery”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The verb means to prepare a plan for reaching an aim and, with a following subjunctive, to intend: plănuia să plece “he was planning to leave”.^[3][4] By extension it took the negative sense “to plot, scheme”, as in Ispirescu, where a character bears ill will to others and keeps plotting how to destroy them.^[4][2] A rare group of senses, “to determine, fix, decide”, is listed by DEX and MDA2.^[2][3]

The word reached folk poetry: the master builders of a ballad „Stau și tot privesc, Planuri plănuiesc” “stand and keep looking, they plan plans”.^[9] Tiktin notes a colloquial reflexive a se plănui “to think something over”.^[6] Ciorănescu adds the noun plănuială “plan, project”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1785 – the noun plan, the base.^[8]
• c. 1832 – plănui “to make plans”, the first record.^[6]
• 19th century – Asachi uses it for devising means and plotting.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To plan; to work out something in the mind for the future, often followed by a subjunctive: Plănuiesc să mă mut la țară. “I'm planning to move to the country.”^[2][3][1]
2. To intend, to mean to act in a certain way.^[3][4]
3. (by extension) To plot, to scheme.^[2][3]
4. (rare) To determine, to fix, to decide.^[2][3]

Word family

• plănuială

Related words

• plan
• planifica

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 830
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 411
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. plănui
5. ^ a b c d 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. plan
6. ^ 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. plănui
7. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 403
8. ^ 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. plan
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 456