înțelept

Forms

înțelept m or n (feminine singular înțeleaptă, masculine plural înțelepți, feminine/neuter plural înțelepte)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin intellēctus (“understood”), the past participle of intellegō (“to understand”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The DA notes that Latin did not use the participle as an adjective, and that here it took the place of intellegēns (“intelligent”).^[5] Wiktionary assigns the form to Late Latin.^[1]

In Romanian it was at first also the past participle of înțelege.^[2][1] In that use it was replaced by înțeles, made on the model of other verbs in ⟨-e⟩ such as drege, with dres, and merge, with mers.^[2][1] The /ts/ is due to the influence of the verb.^[4][6] The neologism intelect is its etymological doublet.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the plural înțelepți in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century (Psalms 93:8 and 104:21).^[7] Tiktin dates it from Neacșu's letter of 1521.^[4] In the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583) it means “knowing, versed in”: „știu că ești mai înțeleptă de toți Iudeii naravurilor” “I know you are better versed than all the Jews in their customs”.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “knowing, versed” died out; in its place the 1648 New Testament and the Bible of 1688 used other words.^[5] The main sense became “wise”, often in contrast to nebun “foolish”: „Fiiul înțelept veselește pre tatăl, iară fiiul nebun este întristare maicii” “a wise son makes his father glad, but a foolish son is his mother's grief”.^[4][5] From it came the senses “of sound mind”, “prudent” and “moderate”, and in the old language, of girls and women, “chaste”.^[3][5] Used as a noun, it named a wise man and in particular an ancient philosopher.^[3][8]

Romanian formed neînțelept, înțelepțesc, înțelepțește, the verb înțelepți “to make wise” and preaînțelept, the last modelled on Old Church Slavonic prěmǫdrŭ.^[2]

Timeline

• early 16th century – înțelepți in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[7]
• 1521 – in Neacșu's letter.^[4]
• c. 1563–1583 – “knowing, versed” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3][5]
• c. 1573–1578 – the neuter noun înțelept “intellect” in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3][5]
• 1688 – over a hundred times in the Bucharest Bible, chiefly in Proverbs.^[9][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. wise: having wisdom and a clear mind; sensible.^[8][3][1]
2. Of looks, actions or words, showing wisdom; born of wisdom.^[8][3]
3. prudent, level-headed, self-controlled.^[8][3]
4. (obsolete; of girls and women) chaste.^[3][5]

Noun

1. A wise person, a sage.^[8][1]
2. A thinker of antiquity, a philosopher; a learned man.^[8][3]

Word family

• neînțelept
• înțelepțesc
• înțelepțește
• înțelepți
• preaînțelept

Related words

• înțelege
• înțelepciune
• intelect
• Latin intellegō

Usage notes

The old language also had a neuter noun înțelept “intellect, intelligence”, from the Latin noun intellēctus: „întru înțelept și suflet” “in mind and soul” (Psaltirea Scheiană).^[5][3] It is obsolete.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. înțelege
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. înțelépt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. înțelept
6. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
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 93:8
8. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 558
9. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Prov 10:1