nãinti

Forms

nãinti^[1]

• Cunia heads it nãinti or nãinte, with the variants nãintea, nainti, nãnti, ninti and ãninti and the compounds dinãinti and dininti.^[2]
• Wiktionary heads the word nãnti, with the alternative forms aninte, ãninte, nãinte, nãnte, ninte and ninti.^[1]
• Other spellings: NĂÍNDE or NĂÍNTE in Papahagi's dictionary,^[3] which also has nínte and nî'nte;^[4][5] νᾶΐντε (nâinte) in Nikolaidis's Greek script;^[6] Pascu lists năinte, ninte, nîinde, ninde, nainte, and înainte from Boiagi.^[7]
• Before a noun it takes a final -a like an articled feminine noun (năíntea “before”), but Papahagi notes that it is not declined.^[3] In Papahagi's folk tales naintea comes only after ma (ma naintea “first”).^[8]
• Regional forms: nainte in Weigand's texts.^[9]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin abante (“in front, before”), with the prefix in (“in”) before it, as Candrea–Densusianu and Capidan reconstruct it.^[10][11] Wiktionary analyses the Aromanian word as n- added to an older ãnti or ainti from the Latin adverb.^[1] Ciorănescu explains Romanian înainte the same way: the regular outcome *aînte became ainte, still kept in Aromanian, and was then compounded with în-.^[12] Pascu reconstructs *inabinte, with the vowel influenced by inde (“from there”),^[7] while Papahagi and Nikolaidis start from ante (“before”) with the same prefix.^[5][6] The Latin adverb is a compound of ab- and the preposition, and is found in inscriptions with the sense "in front".^[13]

Megleno-Romanian has nainti.^[11][10] Western Romance has the simple adverb in Italian avanti, Occitan avan and French avant.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pascu quotes the form înainte from Boiagi's grammar of 1813.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the place in front of something, the word passed to time: "before, earlier, first", and "next year" or "in the future".^[14][3][6] Papahagi quotes va nă turnăm năinde ("we will come back next year").^[3] Cunia records the phrases disic nãinti, "to dare", and l-bag nãinti, "to drive someone on" or "to lead someone".^[14]

Timeline

• 1813 – înainte in Boiagi's grammar, as cited by Pascu.^[7]
• 1894 – nainte “forward; first” in Weigand's glossary.^[9]
• 1909 – nâinte “in front; next year” in Nikolaidis's dictionary.^[6]
• 1925 – Pascu reconstructs *inabinte.^[7]

Meanings

Adverb

1. In front, ahead, forward.^[14][3][9]
2. Before, earlier; first.^[14][3][9]
3. Next year; in the future.^[14][3][6]

Preposition

1. (as nãintea) Before, in front of.^[3][1]

Related words

• Romanian înainte

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 698
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 853
4. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 768
5. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 902
6. ^ a b c d e Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 335
7. ^ a b c d e 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, 129
8. ^ Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 649
9. ^ a b c d Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 319
10. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
11. ^ a b Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 201
12. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ 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)