avocat

Forms

avocat m (plural avocați, feminine equivalent avocată or avocăteasă)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French avocat, with learned Latin advocātus beside it, according to MDA2, DEX and Wiktionary.^[2][3][1] Marcu & Maneca put the Latin word first and compare German Advokat, Italian avvocato and the French word.^[4] DELR adds Modern Greek αβοκάτος (avokátos), itself from Italian, to the Italian and French sources.^[5] Ciorănescu puts the older form advocat first, from Latin in the 19th century, and explains the form without ⟨d⟩ by contact with French and Italian.^[6] DELR derives that form from learned Latin and the German word.^[5]

The Latin noun is the past participle of advocō (“to call, summon”) used as a noun: a person called in to help a party to a lawsuit, a legal adviser.^[7][5][8] The verb is formed from ad- and vocō (“to call”), from vōx (“voice”).^[5] French has had the word since 1160, as a loan from Latin.^[9]

Aromanian avucat is from Italian, according to Papahagi and Ciorănescu.^[10][6] Pascu also compares the Modern Greek, Turkish and Bulgarian words.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1667–1669, in the form avucat, in a text of Constantin Cantacuzino, with the sense “lawyer”.^[5] Tiktin's first record is from 1705, in Dimitrie Cantemir.^[12] MDA2 and DA start from the law code printed in 1814, which has advocat: „De va cuteza cineva prin vicleșug a face alcătuire între advocați” “if anyone dares by trickery to make a pact among lawyers”.^[2][13]

Semantic evolution

The forms advocat and avocat lived side by side through the 19th century, and Scriban and CADE still sent the reader from avocat to advocat.^[14][15] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 already had avocat general, the government's lawyer at a court, and avocat obștesc.^[16] DA records the ironic use for anyone who takes up the defence of another person or of an idea.^[13]

Derivatives followed from the late 18th century: avocatură “the legal profession” in 1787, from German Advokatur or formed in Romanian, avocatlâc “a lawyer's trick” in 1836, with a Turkish suffix, avocățime “lawyers as a body” in 1862 and avocată “woman lawyer” in 1881.^[5] In the 1990s and 2000s the press took up avocat de serviciu “duty lawyer”.^[17]

Timeline

• 1667–1669 – avucat in a text of Constantin Cantacuzino; the first record.^[5]
• 1705 – avocat in Dimitrie Cantemir.^[12]
• 1787 – advocatură “the legal profession”.^[5]
• 1814 – advocați in a printed law code.^[2][13]
• 1836 – avocatlâc “lawyer's trick”.^[5]
• 1870 – avocat general in Costinescu's dictionary.^[16]
• 1881 – advocată “woman lawyer”, in Eminescu.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lawyer, attorney: a person qualified and practising to give legal assistance and to represent clients in court.^[3][2][1]
2. a se face (or a fi) avocatul cuiva: to take someone's side insistently, to champion someone.^[3]
3. avocat de serviciu: a duty lawyer, assigned to give legal help at short notice.^[17]

Word family

• advocăție
• avocatlâc
• avocatură
• avocațial
• avocățel
• avocățesc
• avocățime
• avocată

Related words

• Aromanian avucat
• Latin advocātus

Usage notes

The feminine is avocată, colloquially avocăteasă.^[1][5] The older form advocat is rare today, and regional speech has arvocat.^[3][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 148
3. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 81
4. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. avocat
6. ^ 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. advocat
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. advocātus
8. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 110
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. avocat
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 183
11. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 200
12. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. avocat
13. ^ a b c 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. advocat
14. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 141
15. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. avocat
16. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 89
17. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. avocat