Etymologically
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inimã

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Pronunciation

Forms

inimã f (plural inimi or inime or ininj, definite articulation inima)[1]

  • Plural inimi, inime or ininj.[2][1] Wiktionary's alternative form is inãme.[1]
  • Other spellings: ÍNIMĂ, plural ínin'i and ínime, in Papahagi's dictionary;[3] inima in Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;[4] ίνιμα (inimă) in Nikolaidis's Greek script;[5] înemă in one of Pascu's sources;[6] Ήνεμα in Kavalliotis's word list.[7]
  • Regional forms: inimo in Weigand's texts;[8] ínimă, plural ínime, in Metsovo;[9] inămă in the Ohrid–Struga region.[10]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin anima (“breath, soul”),[3][6][1][5] which Pascu glosses soul and heart; he derives the Aromanian form through an older *înemă.[6] De Vaan gives anima as a derivative of animus, from Proto-Italic *anamo- (“breath, spirit”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂enh₁-mo- (“breath”).[11]

Daco-Romanian has inimă, where Candrea and Densusianu explain the form from an older înemă reshaped after the derivative inimos.[12] In Megleno-Romanian inămă survives only in some phrases, the usual word for the heart being buric.[13][14] REW glosses the Latin word soul and its Romanian descendant heart; the western descendants include Italian anima, French âme and Spanish alma.[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Kavalliotis's word list of 1770, where Ήνεμα translates Modern Greek καρδία (kardía, “heart”).[7]

Semantic evolution

From the Latin soul, Aromanian, like Romanian, took the word for the heart, the organ and the seat of feelings.[6][2] It also means the middle or core of something, as in dă-n'i inima a himunícului (“give me the heart of the watermelon”), and the depth of winter;[3][6] courage, love, compassion and worry;[3][2] and the stomach or belly, as in the atlas's mi doári ínima (“my stomach hurts”).[16] Pușcariu notes the same sense in Romanian and compares French cœur.[14] A bad person has an inimă laie, a black heart.[17][4]

Timeline

  • 1770 – Ήνεμα “heart” in Kavalliotis's word list.[7]
  • 1894 – inimo “heart” in Weigand's glossary.[8]
  • 1901 – inima “the heart” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[4]
  • 1909 – ίνιμα “soul, heart” in Nikolaidis's dictionary.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The heart (organ).[2][3][1]
  2. The heart as the seat of feelings; the soul, character.[2][9]
  3. The middle, core (of a fruit or a tree); the depth (of winter).[3][6]
  4. courage.[2][3][18]
  5. Love; compassion; worry.[3][2]
  6. The stomach, belly.[2][3][16]
  • Romanian inimă
  • Megleno-Romanian inămă

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 560
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 679
  4. ^ a b c Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 246
  5. ^ a b c Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 176
  6. ^ a b c d e f 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, 103
  7. ^ a b c Meyer, Gustav (1895), Albanesische Studien IV: Das griechisch-südrumänisch-albanesische Wörterverzeichnis des Kavalliotis, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, phil.-hist. Classe 132, p. 62
  8. ^ a b Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 308
  9. ^ a b Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
  10. ^ Марковиќ, Марјан (2007), Ароманскиот и македонскиот говор од охридско-струшкиот регион (во балкански контекст), Скопје, p. 56
  11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  12. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
  13. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 156
  14. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 75
  15. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  16. ^ a b Saramandu, Nicolae (2023), Glosar aromân, Fonetică și dialectologie XLII: 103–176, p. 137
  17. ^ Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 617
  18. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 330