Etymologically
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nãinti

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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]
  • 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)