minti

Forms

minti f (plural mintsã or mints, definite articulation mintea or mintia)^[1]

• Plural mintsã or mints, definite singular mintea or mintia.^[1][2]
• Other spellings: minte in Wiktionary;^[1] Cunia heads it minti/minte;^[2] MÍNTE in Papahagi's dictionary;^[3] MINTE, plural minți, in Pascu, with minde from Dalametra;^[4] minte in Weigand,^[5] in P. Papahagi's tales^[6] and in Daniil's Tetraglosson.^[7]
• Regional forms: mínti, plural minţ, at many points of the Aromanian dialect atlas.^[8]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mēns (“mind”), in the accusative mentem.^[3][4][1] The word is shared by Romanian minte and Megleno-Romanian minti,^[9][10] and survives across Romance: Italian mente, Spanish miente, Portuguese mente, Catalan ment.^[11][9] Meyer-Lübke notes that Romanian minte also means "brain".^[11] Ciorănescu cites Philippide's comparison with Albanian mënt (“mind”),^[9] and Papahagi compares the Aromanian phrase minte scúrtă (“short wit”) with mënt shkúrtër.^[3]

De Vaan traces mēns to Proto-Italic *mn̥ti- and Proto-Indo-European *mn̥-ti- (“thought, mind”), with cognates such as Sanskrit मति (matí, “thought, mind”) and Lithuanian mintìs (“thought, idea”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is in Daniil of Moscopole's Tetraglosson, where minte si kikasmò translates Modern Greek νοῦν καὶ γνῶσιν (noún kaí gnósin, “mind and knowledge”).^[7]

Semantic evolution

Papahagi lists the senses "intelligence, mind, reason", "thought, intention", "opinion, counsel" and "attention, care", and quotes míntea aduce tímie, icunumía aveáre ("the mind brings honour, thrift brings wealth").^[3] Cunia defines it as the faculty of thinking, judging, remembering and understanding,^[2] and in the dialect atlas it also means "brain".^[8] Many phrases describe madness or foolishness: fugátŭ di mínti "mad", literally "run away from the mind",^[8] and scurtă tu minti "foolish".^[6] Cunia's minti nicoaptã "unripe mind" is a child's mind.^[2]

Timeline

• 1794–1802 – minte “mind” in Daniil of Moscopole's Tetraglosson.^[7]
• 1813 – recorded in Boiagi's grammar, one of the sources Pascu names for the word.^[4]
• 1894 – minte “understanding” in Weigand's glossary.^[5]
• 1905 – Minte “mind, judgement” in the glossary of P. Papahagi's tales.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The mind; intelligence, reason.^[1][3][2]
2. A thought, an intention.^[3]
3. An opinion; counsel, advice.^[3]
4. Attention, care.^[3]
5. The brain.^[8]

Related words

• Romanian minte

Usage notes

Nikolaidis's minti (p. 294) is a form of a verb mintésku "to mix, stir", which he derives from Latin; it is not this word.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 654
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 685
4. ^ a b c 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, 116
5. ^ a b Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 317
6. ^ a b c Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 638
7. ^ a b c Leake, William Martin (1814), Researches in Greece, London (prints Daniil of Moscopole's Tetraglosson), p. 385
8. ^ a b c d Saramandu, Nicolae (2023), Glosar aromân, Fonetică și dialectologie XLII: 103–176, p. 145
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A. (1927–1937), Glosar megleno-romîn I–IV, Grai și suflet III: 175–209; IV: 381–413; VI: 163–193; VII: 194–233, p. 167
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 294