verbină

Forms

verbină f (plural verbine)^[1] A folk song recorded by the DLR has the form berbină: „Foaie verde de berbină, Pusei lacăt la grădină” “green leaf of verbena, I put a lock on the garden”.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin verbēna (“leafy twig, sacred bough”), with French verveine as a model beside it.^[3][2][4][5] Ciorănescu treats it as a learned word of the 19th century.^[6] Pascu and the REW took it as inherited, and Wiktionary still does, but Ciorănescu finds a direct descent from Latin doubtful.^[6][7][1] He also doubts a borrowing Bulgarian върбина (vărbina), which Conev proposed.^[6] The Bulgarian etymological dictionary explains that word as the scientific name of the genus reshaped after върба (vărba, “willow”), and compares the Romanian word.^[8] The neologism dictionaries name Latin and Italian verbena together, with the French word for comparison.^[9][10]

Ciorănescu gives an Aromanian form beside it, and Wiktionary has Aromanian yirghinã.^[6][1] The Latin word is formed on the stem of verber (“rod, lash”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *werb-.^[1][11] It is a doublet of vervenă, which came from French.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1853, with the plant name Verbena.^[4] MDA2 dates it from the Enciclopedia română of 1898.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the word meant the leafy branches of laurel, olive or myrtle carried in religious rites.^[12] In Romanian all its senses are plant names.^[2][5] The Academy dictionary sorts it into the wild vervain of folk medicine (Verbena officinalis), the garden hybrids with flowers of many colours, and another decorative species with purple or lilac flowers.^[2] Folk names for the wild plant include sporici and măturiță.^[13][2] In the collective sense the word names the stems or leaves used in folk medicine and homeopathy.^[14]

Timeline

• 1853 – the first record, in Tiktin.^[4]
• 1898 – the Enciclopedia română, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1929 – Panțu lists verbină among the folk names of vervain and of a garden verbena in Transylvania.^[13][15]
• 1939 – Scriban describes it as an ornamental and medicinal plant.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. verbena: any of several herbaceous plants, often grown for ornament, with toothed, pointed leaves and red, white, purple or lilac flowers (Verbena).^[5][1]
2. vervain, the wild species used in folk medicine (Verbena officinalis).^[2][3]
3. The stems or leaves of the plant, used as a remedy.^[14]

Related words

• vervenă
• Latin verbēna

Usage notes

Besides verbină the dictionaries record vervenă, verbenă and the regional berbină.^[2][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. verbină
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1457
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. verbină
5. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1192
6. ^ a b c d e 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. verbină
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9219
8. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 209
9. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. verbină
10. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. verbină
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. verbena
12. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. verbena
13. ^ a b Panțu, Zach. C. (1929), Plantele cunoscute de poporul român. Vocabular botanic cuprinzând numirile române, franceze, germane și științifice, 2nd ed., București: Editura Casei Școalelor, p. 288
14. ^ a b c Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. verbină
15. ^ Panțu, Zach. C. (1929), Plantele cunoscute de poporul român. Vocabular botanic cuprinzând numirile române, franceze, germane și științifice, 2nd ed., București: Editura Casei Școalelor, p. 330
16. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1400