Etymologically
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romantic

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /rəˈmæn.tɪk/, /rəʊˈmæn.tɪk/, US /roʊˈmæn.t̬ɪk/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French romantique (“pertaining to romance”),[2][3][4] from romant “a romance”, an oblique case or variant of Old French romanz (“verse narrative”), the source of romance.[2][3][5] SOED explains it as formed in English from romaunt and -ic.[6] It displaced an earlier and rare romancical (1656).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the nature of a literary romance, heroic or marvellous: 1659 in the OED and Barnhart, the 1650s in Etymonline.[7][3][2]

Semantic evolution

Fictitious, having no foundation in fact, is from 1667, and fantastic or quixotic, of projects, from 1671.[7] Characteristic of an ideal love affair is from the 1660s.[2] Of places, with poetic or inspiring scenery, it is by 1705.[2] In the 18th century the word was a term of contempt, but it rose in standing until, as Trench noted in 1859, it shared with classical the whole of modern literature.[8] As a literary style opposed to classical it is from before 1812,[2][7] first of schools of poetry in Germany and France,[2] and in music from 1885.[2] The noun, a romantic person, is first recorded in 1865,[3] and an adherent of romanticism in literature from 1827.[2] Having a love affair as its theme, of a modern work, is from 1960.[2][7]

Timeline

  • 1659 – like a literary romance.[7][3]
  • 1660s – of ideal love.[2]
  • 1667 – fictitious.[7]
  • by 1705 – of scenery.[2]
  • 1812 – the Romantic style.[7]
  • 1885 – in music.[2][7]
  • 1960 – having love as its theme.[7]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Relating to love or a love affair, or suitable for it: a romantic dinner.
  2. Given to feelings of romance or idealized love.
  3. Imaginative but impractical; idealistic.
  4. Imaginary or not true.
  5. (often Romantic) Relating to Romanticism in art, literature or music.

Noun

  1. A person with romantic ideas.
  2. A follower of Romanticism.

Word family

  • romantically
  • romanticalness
  • hyperromantic
  • pseudoromantic
  • romanticise
  • Romanticism
  • romanticist
  • romanticize

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker