strânge

Forms

a strânge (present strâng, past participle strâns) 3rd conjugation^[1] MDA2 records old variants with -in- and -en-.^[2] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the word was written стрынӂе.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin stringō (“to draw tight, bind”).^{[3][4][2][5][1]} It survives south of the Danube as Aromanian stringu and Megleno-Romanian string.^[3][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian strengar, Italian stringere, French étreindre, Catalan estrenyer and Spanish estreñir;^[3][8] Philippide compared Albanian strëngoń.^[3][8]

The Latin verb may merge two older verbs, from Proto-Indo-European *streyg- (“to strip”) and *strengʰ- (“to twist”).^[1][9] Romanian constrânge and restrânge were made on it after French contraindre and restreindre, and astrânge may be a Romanian formation or come from Latin astringō.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is stringe in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century (Psalm 32:7).^[10] A later one is the participle strîns in a psalter print of 1589 (Psalm 73:2).^[11] Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 has strîng for Slavonic verbs of gathering and storing up treasure.^[12] MDA2's first record is the 17th-century Lexicon Marsilianum.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Two groups of senses go back to the Latin verb's “draw together”: pressing and tightening (squeezing a hand, tightening a knot or a screw, clothes that pinch), and bringing together (gathering scattered things, harvesting, saving money, collecting taxes, people assembling).^[4][3] The DLR arranges the verb by this idea of drawing together in space.^[5]

The gathering senses were already common in the old texts: the lexicons of the 17th century use it for heaping up treasure and storing grain, and the Bible of 1688 has it often.^[12][13] Derivatives keep both lines: strânsoare “grip” but in old texts also “harvest, wealth”, and strânsură “harvest; crowd”.^[3] Idioms include a strânge cureaua “to tighten one's belt” and l-a strâns Dumnezeu “he has died”.^[4]

Timeline

• early 16th century – stringe in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 32:7).^[10]
• 1589 – the participle strîns in a psalter.^[11]
• 1649 – strîng in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 17th century – strânge in the Lexicon Marsilianum.^[2]
• 1688 – frequent in the Bucharest Bible, of gathering manna.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tighten: to pull the ends of a cord or strap so that a knot or binding holds better; to screw a part tighter.^[4][1]
2. To squeeze, press, grip: a strânge mâna cuiva “to shake someone's hand”; of clothes, to pinch.^[4][2]
3. To draw in, contract, fold: a strânge din umeri “to shrug”, a strânge din sprâncene “to frown”; reflexive, of milk, to curdle.^[4]
4. To gather, collect; to harvest crops.^[4][14][1]
5. To save up, accumulate money or goods; to collect taxes.^[4]
6. (reflexive) To assemble, come together.^[4]
7. To tidy up, put things back in their place: a strânge masa “to clear the table”.^[4][14]

Word family

• constrânge
• restrânge
• strângător
• strângere
• strânsătură
• strânsoare
• strânsură

Related words

• astrânge
• strâmt
• Aromanian stringu
• Latin stringō

Usage notes

A strânge cureaua means “to go hungry, cut one's spending”.^[4] A strânge pe cineva cu ușa means “to force someone to do or admit something”.^[4][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1009
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. strînge
4. ^ 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. 1058
5. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. strînge
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 982
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 278
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8315
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b 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 32:7
11. ^ a b 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 73:2
12. ^ a b c 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. strîng
13. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ieșirea 16:4
14. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. strânge