articol

Forms

articol n (plural articole)^[1] Older texts have the variants artic (1646), articul (1691), articlu (1812) and, in Transylvania, articuluș “article of law” (1699); the form articol itself appears in 1787, in Văcărescu's grammar.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin articulus (“joint; section, item”), a learned borrowing,^[2][3][4][5] with borrowed from French article as a second model for the modern senses.^[6][7][1] DELR also names Italian articolo as a parallel.^[2] The Latin word is a diminutive of artus (“joint, limb”) with -culus,^[8][1] and its grammatical sense “article” is a calque of Ancient Greek ἄρθρον (árthron).^[2][1]

The old variant artic is explained by DELR, after the CADE, from Polish artykuł, its final ⟨-ul⟩ having been taken for the Romanian definite article.^[2] DELR thinks it may also have been remade in the same way from articul.^[2] The Transylvanian articuluș is from Hungarian artikulus.^[2] Ciorănescu dates the borrowing from Latin to the 17th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the Moldavian law code of 1646, where the form artic means a petition and an article of a text.^[2] Tiktin's first record of articol is a passage of 1683 in Dosoftei's lives of the saints, and MDA2 gives a first record from Cantemir, in the old sense of a precept of religious doctrine.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The first senses in Romanian were legal and doctrinal: a petition, a clause of a law or treaty, a tenet of faith.^[2][5] The anatomical sense of the Latin word, a joint, lived on in old texts in the form articul, which Cantemir uses; it could also mean the clear articulation of speech.^[5][4][2] The modern senses, a newspaper article, an item for sale and the grammatical article, came in with French influence.^[6] In zoology the word names the segments of the limbs of arthropods.^[6][7]

The family grew in the 19th century from French and Latin models: articula and articular are recorded from 1822 and articulație from 1839, while the diminutive articolaș appears in Bălcescu in 1847.^[2]

Timeline

• 1646 – artic “petition; article of a text” in the Moldavian Pravila, the first record.^[2]
• 1683 – articol in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[4]
• 1691 – the variant articul.^[2]
• 1699 – Transylvanian articuluș “article of law”.^[2]
• 1787 – the form articol in Văcărescu's grammar.^[2]
• 1812 – the variant articlu in Petru Maior.^[2]
• 1822 – the verb articula and the adjective articular.^[2]
• 1839 – articulație “joint; articulation”.^[2]
• 1847 – the diminutive articolaș in Bălcescu.^[2]
• 1939 – articlier “writer of newspaper articles”, from French.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A written article of moderate length in a newspaper or periodical, on a political, economic, scientific or other topic.^[7] Articol de fond is an editorial.^[7][1]
2. A numbered clause or section of an official document, a law or a treaty; also an item of a budget or financial plan.^[7][5]
3. (zoology) A segment of certain organs, such as the limbs of arthropods.^[7][6]
4. An item sold in trade, a commodity: articole de uz casnic “household goods”.^[7][5]
5. (grammar) The definite or indefinite article, an inflected part of speech that accompanies a noun or adjective and marks its grammatical functions.^[7][1]
6. (obsolete) A joint of the body; the articulation of speech sounds.^[5][2]

Word family

• articlier
• articolaș

Related words

• Latin articulus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 r s t u 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. articol
3. ^ 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. articol
4. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. articol
5. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 104
6. ^ a b c d 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. articol
7. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 64
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press