vânat

Forms

vânat n (plural vânaturi)^[1]

Etymology

It is the past participle, used as a noun, from Romanian vâna (“to hunt”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The verb continues Latin vēnor (“to hunt”) through a popular active form *vēnāre.^[5] MDA2 and Wiktionary also allow a direct continuation of the Latin noun vēnātus (“hunting, the chase”).^[6][1] Ciorănescu takes Aromanian avinat “hunt, game” directly from the Latin noun, after Pușcariu and the REW, and compares Catalan venat, Spanish venado and Portuguese veado.^[5][7] Tiktin compares the Spanish and Portuguese words, which mean “big game”, for the sense.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the noun from the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[6] The participle “hunted” is in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[4] Coresi's Psalter of 1570 has vînatul “its provision” in Psalm 131, a reading also found in the Scheiană and Ciobanu psalters.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The noun first means the hunt itself, mostly after verbs of going: a merge la vânat “to go hunting”.^[3] The Bible of 1688 says of Esau that „au venit de la vânat” “he came from hunting”, and a document of the same year tells of men who „n-au mers la vânat, ce au mers la tâlhării” “did not go hunting but went robbing”.^[3] From the action it passed to what is hunted, the game, and more narrowly to its meat.^[2][9] The Buda lexicon of 1825 has all three senses: the hunt, wild animals and their meat.^[10]

Old texts also use it for fishing and the catch of fish, and figuratively, in church language, for the winning of converts.^[6] The prey of beasts and birds of prey is a vânat too, and a person sought by the police can be called one.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – the noun in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[6]
• 1570 – vînatul in Coresi's Psalter, Psalm 131.^[8]
• 1688 – la vânat “to the hunt” in the Bucharest Bible and in a document.^[3]
• 1825 – vẻnatu “hunt, game, venison” in the Buda lexicon.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Hunting, the chase; hunt.^[2][6][1]
2. What is hunted: game; by restriction, the meat of a hunted animal, venison.^[2][6][1]
3. An animal that is the prey of a beast or bird of prey.^[6]
4. (figurative) A person who is being hunted down by the authorities.^[6]

Related words

• vâna
• vânătoare
• vânător
• Aromanian avinat

Usage notes

Vânat is also the past participle and adjective “hunted” of vâna.^[6] The plural is vânaturi, regionally vânate.^[6][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1187
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vânat
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. vânat
5. ^ a b c 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. vâna
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1433
7. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 49
8. ^ 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 131:16
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 680
10. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 748