stinge

Forms

stinge (third-person singular present stinge, past participle stins, third-person subjunctive stingă), 3rd conjugation^[1] The old variant stânge still appears in Sadoveanu: „Avea o sete ca aceia: bea de stângea” “he had such a thirst that he drank like a fish”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin extinguō (“to put out, extinguish”).^[3][4][5][1] The Latin verb is formed from ex- and stinguō.^[1] The REW lists the Romanian verb under the simple verb, together with Italian stingere.^[6]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian astingu, Megleno-Romanian sting and Istro-Romanian stingu.^[3][7][8] Romance cognates include Occitan estenher and French éteindre.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Gospel text of 1551–1553, Matthew 12:20.^[2] Coresi's Tetraevanghel (1560), MDA2's first record, has the same verse: „Inul aprins nu va stinge” “he will not quench the burning flax”.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

From putting out a fire the verb passed to putting out a light, and today to switching off a lamp, a radio or a television set.^[4][9] Figurative uses followed: “to quench” thirst, “to calm” pain or passion, and in the reflexive “to fade, to waste away” and “to die”.^[3][9][2] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has the sense “to destroy, to wipe out”: „Stinge-voi pre om” “I will destroy man”.^[2] Families and peoples are said to die out (s-au stins), and debts and legal actions to be extinguished.^[9][10]

Pontbriant already records a stinge var “to slake lime”.^[11] After de the verb makes a superlative: fura de stingea “he stole like mad”, bea de stinge “he drinks like a fish”.^[5][9][2]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – first record, in a Gospel text (Matthew 12:20).^[2]
• 1560 – „Inul aprins nu va stinge” in Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[5][4]
• 1660 – Staicu's lexicon glosses the Slavonic verb “to quench”.^[12]
• 1688 – “to destroy” (Genesis 6:7) and the reflexive “to go out” (Mark 9:44) in the Bucharest Bible.^[2]
• 1862 – a stinge var “to slake lime” in Pontbriant.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To extinguish, to put out a fire or something burning;^[1] (reflexive) to go out, to burn out.^[9][1]
2. (figurative) To calm, to appease;^[1] (reflexive) to grow weak, to waste away;^[1] (colloquial) to be ruined.^[9]
3. To turn off a light or an electric device;^[1] (reflexive, of stars) to lose their light.^[9][1]
4. (reflexive and transitive) To fade, to grow fainter, of sounds.^[9]
5. (reflexive) To die, to pass away; to die out without descendants;^[1] (transitive) to kill.^[9][1]
6. To wipe out, to destroy.^[9]
7. To put an end to an obligation or a legal action: a stinge o datorie “to pay off a debt”.^[9][10]
8. To slake lime: a stinge var.^[13][1]

Word family

• stingător
• stingătoare
• stingere
• stins
• nestins

Related words

• distinge
• extincție
• Aromanian astingu
• Latin extinguō

Usage notes

Bea de stinge means “he drinks like a fish”.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. stínge
3. ^ a b c d e 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. stinge
4. ^ 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, 991
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. stinge
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 170
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 276
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1053
10. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 617
11. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 702
12. ^ 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. stinge
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. stinge