înțelepciune

Forms

înțelepciune f (uncountable)^[1] Old texts also spell it înțilepciune: a Pravila says that the holy scriptures „izvorăsc și ies dentru înțilepciunea dumnedzăirei” “spring and come forth from the wisdom of God”.^[2][3] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the word was written ынцелепчуне.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin intellectiō (“understanding, knowledge”), through its accusative intellectiōnem.^[3][4][5][1] The DA glosses the Latin word “knowledge, explanation”.^[2] It was formed with -tiō on intellegō (“to understand”), which is most likely formed inter (“between”) and legō (“to gather, choose”).^[1][6]

The noun belongs with înțelept “wise” and înțelege “to understand”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DA's first quotation is from the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), where the word means “knowledge”.^[2] Coresi's psalter of 1570 already has it several times, at Psalms 18:2, 48:3, 93:10 and 110:10.^[7] MDA2 gives the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578) as its first record, and Tiktin also dates it to that 16th-century psalter.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “knowledge, learning” is now obsolete.^[3][1] It was used especially of God, for divine wisdom and omniscience, as in the Bible of 1688.^[2] The usual sense became the mind's power to judge rightly, to tell good from evil and truth from lies.^[2] From it came “prudence, moderation” and “foresight”.^[3][4]

Klein's dictionary of 1801 gives it as Latin prudentia and sapientia, and the Lexicon de la Buda (1825) does the same.^[8][9] Costinescu (1870) records Înțelepciunea eternă “the eternal Wisdom” for the Word of God, the second person of the Trinity.^[10] He also records Înțelepciunea as the title of a book of the Bible.^[10] Scriban adds the senses “cleverness” and “docility” (of a child).^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1563-1583 – “knowledge” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[2]
• 1570 – in Coresi's psalter.^[7]
• c. 1573-1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1688 – “wisdom is better than precious stones” in the Bucharest Bible (Proverbs 8:11).^[5]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses it prudentia, sapientia.^[8]
• 1870 – “the eternal Wisdom”, the Word of God.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. wisdom: a high capacity for understanding and judging things.^[4][1]
2. prudence, moderation drawn from experience; foresight.^[4][3]
3. (obsolete) knowledge.^[3][1]

Related words

• înțelept
• înțelege
• Latin intellectiō

Usage notes

Cu înțelepciune means “prudently, with sound judgement”: A vorbit cu înțelepciune.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. înțelepciune
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1263
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 558
5. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. înțelepciune
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. intellegō
7. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 110:10
8. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 384
9. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 314
10. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 602
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 705
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. înțelepciune