uni

Forms

uni (present unesc, third person unește, past participle unit), fourth conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ūniō (“to unite”) according to Pușcariu, DEX, MDA2 and DLR.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin verb, rare and late, was formed on ūnus (“one”).^[6] DEX also names the inchoative *ūnēscō, and Wiktionary explains the present ⟨unesc⟩ of the Aromanian verb by it or by the suffix ⟨-esc⟩.^[3][1]

Ciorănescu and Tiktin instead derive it from Romanian un (“one”) within the language;^[2][7] Tiktin adds that it followed the model of the Church Slavonic verb for “to unite”.^[2][7] It survives south of the Danube as Aromanian unescu.^[8][1] Most Romance languages have the verb: Italian unire, French unir, Catalan unir, Spanish unir and Portuguese unir.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1670, in the Latin–Romanian glossary known as the Anonymus Caransebesiensis;^[7][4] MDA2 dates that glossary c. 1650–1700.^[7][4] DLR's first quotation is from a liturgy of 1702, where the Eucharist „ne împreună, ne unește” “joins us, unites us” with the body of Christ.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is to bring things together into one whole, said of objects, lands or forces.^[5][3] From the 18th century DLR quotes it of rivers and of estates joined by a boundary.^[5] Reflexive uses followed: to make an alliance for a common aim, and, in Pamfile's folk texts, to agree on a price.^[3][7][4] The verb also means to join in marriage, and in popular use to have sex.^[3][4]

Ciorănescu lists the derivatives unire “union”, unit (also, as a noun, a member of the Greek Catholic Church) and desuni “to disunite”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1650–1700 – uni in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, the first record.^[4][7]
• 1702 – unește in a liturgy, the first quotation in DLR.^[5]
• 1773 – s-au unit, of joined waters.^[5]
• 1782 – unit, of a village bordering an estate.^[5]
• 1801 – unesc in Klein's dictionary, glossed with Latin uniō.^[10]
• 1862 – Pontbriant gives the senses “to unite, to join, to combine”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To unite, join: to bring together or come together into one whole.^[3][4][1]
2. (reflexive, reciprocal) To make an alliance or agreement for a common aim.^[3][4]
3. (transitive and reflexive) To join in marriage, to marry.^[3][4]

Word family

• unire
• unit
• desuni
• întruni

Related words

• unic
• un
• Aromanian unescu

Usage notes

Two words of French origin share the spelling.^[3] Uni, an invariable adjective pronounced /yˈni/, is said of fabrics and clothes of a single colour: it comes from French uni and is first recorded in 1978.^[3][4][5][1] Uni- is a combining form meaning “one, single”, as in unicolor, from uni-, which goes back to ūnus.^[3][12][13] Ciorănescu notes that the combining form is not productive in Romanian.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. un
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1172
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1376
5. ^ 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. uni
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ 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. uni
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 1061
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 464
11. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 762
12. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. uni
13. ^ Andrei, Nicolae (1987), Dicționar etimologic de termeni științifici: elemente de compunere greco-latine, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. s.v. uni
14. ^ 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. uni