vânătaie

Forms

vânătaie f (plural vânătăi)^[1] The old plural was vânătaie, the same as the singular, and some regional speech has a neuter vânătăi.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian vânăt + -aie, from the adjective “livid, bluish” and the suffix of collectives and results.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of vânăt and compares apăraie and vâlvătaie, made with the same suffix.^[6] The adjective is from Latin venetus (“blue, sea-coloured”).^[6][1]

Scriban reconstructed Vulgar Latin *venetalia instead, comparing bătaie; the other dictionaries treat the word as a Romanian formation.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Vasile Lupu's Pravila of 1646, in the law on insults: whoever strikes another with fist or stick „de nu să va îmfla sau de nu va face vînătaie sau sînge” “and causes no swelling, bruise or blood” has not committed a grave insult.^[2][3] Tiktin dates the word to the Palia de la Orăștie of 1581–1582, but under the variant vânătare: „Rană pentru rană, vânătare pentru vânătare” “wound for wound, stripe for stripe” (Exodus 21:25).^[5]

Semantic evolution

The main sense has always been the bluish mark left on the skin by a blow.^[2][4] The Bible of 1688 uses the plural figuratively for torments in the Psalms: „Adunatu-s-au preste mine vînătăi” “bruises gathered upon me”.^[2][8] In Transylvanian folk speech vânătaia cerului, literally “the bruise of the sky”, is the blue vault of heaven, and by extension the air: a charm sends an illness „în vânătările cerului și pe marginile pământului” “into the blue of the sky and to the edges of the earth”.^[2][5][3]

The older words vânătare and vânătură had the same meaning;^[2][4][9] DEX gives the learned echimoză and the popular vinețeală as synonyms.^[2][4][9]

Timeline

• 1581–1582 – the variant vânătare in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[5]
• 1646 – vânătaie in Vasile Lupu's Pravila, the first record of this form.^[2][3]
• 1682–1686 – „ochi cu vânătăi” “eyes with bruises” in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[2]
• 1688 – the plural vânătăi “torments” in the Psalms of the Bucharest Bible.^[2][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bruise: a bluish mark on the skin, usually after a blow; an echimoză.^[4][3]
2. (obsolete, figurative) torment, moral suffering.^[2][3]
3. (regional, Transylvania) The blue vault of the sky; by extension the air.^[2][3]

Related words

• vânăt
• vinețeală
• vânătă

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vînătaie
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1433
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1187
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. vânătaie
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. vînăt
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună
8. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition)
9. ^ a b Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas