antic

Forms

antic m or n (feminine singular antică, masculine plural antici, feminine/neuter plural antice)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French antique, borrowed from Italian antico, with the learned Latin antīquus (“old, ancient”) as a model.^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu gives only the French word, Tiktin the Italian and the French.^[5][6] The common stress ⟨ántic⟩ follows the adjectives in ⟨-ic⟩; ⟨antíc⟩ is the older stress, still heard in poetry.^[2][7]

The Latin adjective is formed on ante (“before, in front”).^[8][9] Wiktionary and DELR, after de Vaan, analyse it as a compound with the root for “eye, sight”, literally “facing the front”: Proto-Indo-European *h₂énti-h₃kʷ-o-s.^[1][2] In French the learned form replaced Old French anti, the inherited word.^[10]

The feminine noun antică “antique object” came from Italian through the languages of the Ottoman Balkans, where Greek, Turkish, Bulgarian and Judaeo-Spanish have the same word; it is also found south of the Danube: Aromanian antică and Megleno-Romanian antică.^[5][11] DELR derives this noun from the French word instead.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the variant anticesc in Dimitriu's Etiopice of about 1772;^[2][6] Tiktin also dates the word to 1772.^[2][6] The form antic appears in 1827.^[2] The sense was “very old, from ancient times”.^[2][12]

Semantic evolution

Negulici's dictionary of neologisms (1848) glosses the word only as “very old”.^[12] By the 1860s it also meant “belonging to the Greeks and Romans”: Alexandrescu saw eagles and bison carved on ancient monuments, and Eminescu wrote an ode “in ancient metre”.^[7][4] From this came “classical, perfect like an ancient work of art”, as in Eminescu's old man “of an ancient beauty”.^[7][13] Șăineanu also records “out of fashion” for clothes.^[14]

Used as a noun, the masculine plural anticii means the ancients, above all the Greeks and Romans.^[6][15] The feminine antică “ancient work of art, cameo”, recorded from 1808, is now dated;^{[2][7][16][15]} Scriban and CADE record it ironically for an old-fashioned person.^{[2][7][16][15]}

The family came from several languages: anticar (1830) from French and German, anticariat (1840) from German Antiquariat, antichitate (1821) from French and Italian adapted to Latin.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1772 – the variant anticesc in Dimitriu's Etiopice, the first record.^[2][6]
• 1808 – the noun antică “antique object”.^[2]
• 1821 – antichitate “antiquity”, as anticvită.^[2]
• 1827 – the form antic.^[2]
• 1830 – anticar “antiquarian”.^[2]
• 1840 – anticariat “antiquarian bookshop”.^[2]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[12]
• 1863 – Alexandrescu's Meditații, MDA2's first record.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. ancient: that existed in the distant past or dates from it.^[3][4]
2. Belonging to the peoples of Antiquity, or typical of their culture and civilization: istorie antică “ancient history”.^[3][17]
3. In the style of ancient works: stil antic.^[3]
4. (figurative) Classical, perfect like an ancient work of art.^[18][4]

Noun

1. A person of the ancient peoples, especially a Greek or Roman; mostly in the plural, anticii “the ancients”.^[3][13]
2. (dated, feminine) An ancient work of art.^[3][4]

Word family

• anticar
• anticariat
• anticat
• antică
• anticărie
• antichitate

Related words

• Latin antīquus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. antic
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 46
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 69
5. ^ 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), p. s.v. antic
6. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. antic
7. ^ a b c d e 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. antic
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. antiquus
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. antique
11. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 21
12. ^ a b c Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. antic
13. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 94
14. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 26
15. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. antic
16. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 105
17. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. antic
18. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. antic