unge

Forms

unge (third-person singular present unge, past participle uns, third-person subjunctive ungă) 3rd conjugation^[1] The old perfect was unș: the Psaltirea Scheiană has „cu untul sfăntu al mieu unșu elu” “with my holy oil I anointed him”.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ungō (“to smear, anoint”).^{[3][2][4][5][6][1]} The word survives in all four branches of Romanian: Aromanian ungu, Megleno-Romanian ung and Istro-Romanian ungu.^[3][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian ungere, French oindre and Occitan onher.^[3][6] DÉRom reconstructs the Proto-Romance verb as */ˈʊnɡ-e-re/.^[8]

The Latin verb, earlier unguō, goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃engʷ- (“to anoint”).^[1] Its cognates include Sanskrit अनक्ति (anákti, “anoints”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the early 16th-century Psaltirea Hurmuzaki: se ungă in Psalm 140:6.^[4][9] The Psaltirea Scheiană has the perfect unșu of anointing a king, and the 1574 Gospel book has „unge capul tău” “anoint your head”.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense, to cover with grease, oil or another sticky substance, and the religious one, to anoint with holy oil, are both in the oldest texts.^[10][2] From anointing came the sense “to invest a ruler or a bishop”: Ureche tells of Lupu being taken to church „ca să-l ungă de domnie” “to be anointed prince”.^[2][5] The verb also means to plaster or whitewash a wall, and to smear or soil.^[5][3]

Figurative uses are mostly colloquial.^[5] A unge osia “to grease the axle” and a unge pe cineva cu miere mean to bribe;^[5][4] a unge pe cineva la inimă is to give someone great pleasure;^[5][4] a se unge pe gât is to drink; and a fi uns cu toate unsorile is to be an old hand who can't be fooled.^[5][4] Tiktin also records a unge “to bribe” in familiar speech.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – ungă in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[4][9]
• c. 1573–1578 – the old perfect unșu in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2]
• 1574 – unge capul tău in the Gospel book of that year.^[10]
• 1649 – the participle unse in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1688 – unge and uns in the Bucharest Bible, which has Matthew 6:17 „unge capul tău”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To grease, oil or smear; to cover with a layer of fat or a sticky substance; reflexive, to rub oneself with it.^[5][4]
2. To anoint a monarch or a bishop into office; to anoint with holy oil.^[5]
3. To plaster or whitewash a wall; to smear, soil.^[5]
4. (colloquial) To bribe; also, to give someone a sound beating.^[5][12]

Word family

• unsoare
• unsură
• unsuros
• unsuri
• ungere

Related words

• unt
• untură
• Aromanian ungu

Usage notes

Common set phrases are a unge osia and a unge pe cineva cu miere “to bribe”, a se unge pe gât “to have a drink” and a fi uns cu toate unsorile “to have been through everything”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. unge
3. ^ 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. unge
4. ^ 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, 1374
5. ^ 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. 1171
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9069
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1085
8. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom, p. s.v. ungere
9. ^ 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 140:6
10. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. unge
11. ^ 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. unse
12. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. unge