vântă

Forms

vântă f (plural vinte)^[1] Scriban and Wiktionary also record the form vintă.^[2][1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[3][4] MDA2 and the DLR compare Italian vanto (“boast, glory”).^[3][4] Scriban suggested a verbal noun from a Latin verb Late Latin vānitō (“to boast”), the source of French vanter and Italian vantare.^[2][5] Wiktionary gives two possibilities: vānitās (“vanity”) itself, or a lost early Romanian verb taken from the Late Latin one.^[1] The Latin noun is formed on vānus (“empty, vain”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The sense “glory” is first recorded in Budai-Deleanu, whose speaker would at least have died „fără vântă” “without glory”;^[4][3] Budai-Deleanu also entered the word in his lexicon.^[4][3] Asachi used it several times, of the glory of Alexander and Caesar.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed literary and is marked as obsolete; the dictionaries record it as “fame, glory, greatness”.^[4][6][2] Scriban includes Dosoftei among its authors, while the DLR treats Dosoftei's vântă as a separate word.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete) glory, fame, greatness.^[4][3][1][6]

Usage notes

The DLR and MDA2 list two more nouns vântă, both of unknown origin.^[7][8][3] One is a religious word of Dosoftei's verse psalter, “protection, refuge, salvation, hope”, said of God: „Tu-m ești, Doamne, tărie și vântă” “thou art my strength and refuge, Lord”.^[7][3] The other is a Banat word used with a avea and a fi, “use, profit”: ce vântă are de avere “what use is wealth to him”, first recorded in 1884.^[8][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1414
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, 1435
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vîntă 2
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9138
6. ^ a b Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. vântă
7. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vîntă 1
8. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vîntă 3