spinos

Forms

spinos m or n (feminine singular spinoasă, masculine plural spinoși, feminine/neuter plural spinoase)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian spin (“thorn”) + -os.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The noun continues Latin spīnus (“blackthorn, wild plum”).^[6][3] Pușcariu and the REW instead take the adjective straight from spīnōsus (“thorny”), which survives across Romance: Italian spinoso, French épineux, Catalan espinós, Spanish espinoso and Portuguese espinhoso.^[7][8][9] Wiktionary gives the Romanian derivative and notes that it may correspond to the Latin word.^[1]

South of the Danube, Aromanian schinos has the same two explanations: Papahagi derives it from Latin, and Wiktionary also from schin with the suffix.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1584, from the Slavonic documents of the Romanian lands.^[5] His first quotation comes from an old Moldavian law code, of an abandoned clearing „spinos și plin de pădure” “overgrown with thorns and full of woods”.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense covers plants and parts of plants with thorns, land overgrown with thorny plants, and, rarely, animals with spines.^[2][4] A figurative use for the thorny thoughts of the heart is found in the Mineiul of 1778.^[4] In the 19th century the sense “difficult” became common: Antonescu's dictionary of 1875 already gives it, and Scriban's example is carieră spinoasă “a thorny career”.^[11][12][4] Today it is said of a problem or task that is complicated and hard to deal with.^[3]

Timeline

• 1584 – a record in the Slavonic charters of the Romanian lands, the first.^[5]
• 1778 – figurative use in the Mineiul.^[4]
• 1818 – in Budai-Deleanu's Lexicon.^[2]
• 1825 – spinosu glossed with Latin spinosus and German dornig in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[13]
• 1859 – spinos “spinal” in Polizu's anatomy, a separate formation.^[2]
• 1875 – the figurative sense “difficult” in Antonescu's dictionary.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of plants) thorny, spiny;^[3][2] (of land) overgrown with thorny plants.^[3][2]
2. (rare, of animals) having spines.^[2]
3. (figurative) hard to get through or to carry out; harsh.^[3]
4. (figurative) complicated, ticklish.^[3][1]

Related words

• spin
• Aromanian schinos
• Latin spīnōsus

Usage notes

A second, obsolete spinos “spinal” was formed on spină “spine” with the same suffix;^[2][4] Polizu used it in 1859 for the spinal cord (măduva spinoasă).^[2][4] DEX does not list it.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 955
3. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1040
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. spinos
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. spinos
6. ^ a b 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. spin
7. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 148
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 959
11. ^ a b Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 294
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1230
13. ^ 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. 662