zâmbi

Forms

zâmbi (third-person singular present zâmbește, past participle zâmbit), 4th conjugation^[1] Older texts also write zimbi: „Nu vă voi vedea zimbind!” “I shall not see you smiling!” (Sion).^[2] Ciorănescu records zimbi as a Moldavian form.^[3] Regional variants include gimbi, jimbi, jâmbi, zâmți and zâmzi.^[4]

Etymology

It is a Slavic loan, going back through a Slavic verb from Old Church Slavonic зѫбъ (zǫbŭ, “tooth”), from *zǫbъ (“tooth”).^[5][6][1] DLR and MDA2 posit an unattested Slavonic verb formed on this noun, DLR a reflexive one.^[2][4] Tiktin and DEX compare Bulgarian зъбя се (zăbja se, “to bare one's teeth”), MDA2 замби (zambi, “to grin”), and Tiktin also Czech zubiti se (“to bare the teeth, to smile”).^[7][5][4] The Proto-Slavic noun comes from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos.^[1]

Șăineanu explained the verb as literally “to grind the teeth” like a dog.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649, where zîmbi renders the Slavonic въсклабилъсѧ; the later 17th-century lexicons repeat the gloss.^[9] Tiktin dates a record to about 1660, and MDA2 cites the Latin–Romanian glossary of the Anonymus Caransebesiensis (c. 1650–1700).^[7][4] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has the verb in Ecclesiasticus.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Old texts often join it to a râde “to laugh”: a zâmbi a râde is “to begin to laugh, to smile with restraint”, literally “to draw the mouth to laughter”.^[7][4] Neculce has the reflexive, „Vizirul s-au zâmbit a râde” “the vizier smiled”.^[7] The phrase survives in Sadoveanu and is now archaic or popular.^[4]

In the 19th century the verb spread to things: eyes or a look that express gladness, and the sun or a light that shines.^[4][11] Figuratively it means to be favourable to someone, of fortune or chance, and to please or suit someone.^[5][4]

Timeline

• 1649 – zîmbi in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, the first record.^[9]
• c. 1650–1700 – in the Latin–Romanian glossary of the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[4]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible.^[10]
• 1844 – smiling at someone “with eyes shining with love”, in a periodical.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To smile: to draw the lips slightly back, with a brightening of the face, to show joy or satisfaction; a synonym of surâde: Copilul a zâmbit când și-a văzut mama.^[5][4]
2. (of the eyes or a look) To express cheerfulness.^[4][11]
3. (figurative) To be favourable to someone: Norocul i-a zâmbit.^[5][4]
4. (figurative) To please or suit someone, to find favour with them.^[5]
5. (of the sun or a light) To shine.^[4]

Word family

• zâmbet
• zâmbitor

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. zâmbí
3. ^ 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. zimbi
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1547
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1219
6. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 951
7. ^ 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. zâmbí
8. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 706
9. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. zîmbi
10. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Sir 21:22
11. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 757