baron

Forms

baron m (plural baroni, feminine equivalent baroneasă or baroniță)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French baron, also borrowed from German Baron.^[2][3][4] Ciorănescu adds that the German word was the source in Transylvania,^[3] and the DA gives only the German one.^[5] DEX, MDA2 and Wiktionary give French alone,^[6][7][1] and Tiktin traces it, indirectly, to Medieval Latin baro.^[8]

The German word was borrowed from French as a title in the late 15th century or later, after an earlier Middle High German barūn had died out.^[9][10] The French word was the oblique case of Old French ber, which also meant “brave man” and “husband”.^[2] It comes from a Germanic word, Frankish *baro (“free man, warrior”), recorded in Late Latin as baro, “mercenary, soldier, free man”, which in Frankish came to name a royal officer under a count.^[2][11] Pfeifer and the DHLF connect it with Old Norse berja (“to strike, kill”).^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record of the word is of 1574.^[8] DELR dates it from 1742, in Radu Tempea's history of the church of Șchei in Brașov.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the great lords of the West who held full feudal rights over their lands, then a hereditary or conferred title between knight and viscount.^[2][7][6] In Transylvania it was the title of Hungarian and Austrian nobles: the DA quotes a folk song from Cluj about the baron's court.^[5] Already Scriban and Șăineanu record the figurative sense of someone who lives like a lord, as in a trăi ca un baron.^[12][13]

After 1990 the word, often in baron local, came to mean a politician who controls the political and economic life of a county or town, a sense well recorded in the press from 2001.^[14][2][15] DEXI also uses it for a person who has grown very rich by illegal means.^[16]

The derivatives came early: baroneasă from 1788 and in that form from 1806, baronie from 1770–1780, baroniță in the Lexicon of Buda of 1825, baroană from 1852 and baronat from 1865.^[2]

Timeline

• 1574 – first record in Tiktin.^[8]
• 1742 – in Radu Tempea's history of the church of Șchei.^[2]
• 1770–1780 – baronie in Gherasim Putneanul's geography.^[2]
• 1788 – baronese, later baroneasă, in Piuariu-Molnar's dictionary.^[2]
• 1825 – the Lexicon of Buda glosses baron with Latin liber baro, Hungarian báró and German Freiherr.^[17]
• 1837 – baronet, the English title.^[2]
• 1852 – baroană in Alecsandri.^[2]
• 2001 – baronii of a political party in the press.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A great feudal lord of Western and Central Europe with full rights over his lands.^[6][7]
2. A baron: a title of nobility between knight and viscount; a person who holds it.^[6][1]
3. (colloquial, derogatory) A powerful local politician who dominates the economic and political life of a county or town, often baron local.^[14][15][2]
4. (ironic) A man who lives or behaves like a great lord.^[12][7]

Word family

• baroană
• baroneasă
• baronie
• baroniță
• baronat

Usage notes

A separate, regional baron “Gypsy” is a variant of baraon, from Romani baro crossed with faraon, recorded from 1839.^[2] MDA2 lists another baron as a variant of baroi.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. baron
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. baron
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
5. ^ a b 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. baron
6. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 90
7. ^ 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, 166
8. ^ 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. baron
9. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
10. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
11. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 152
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 55
14. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE)
15. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. baron
16. ^ Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. baron
17. ^ 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. 48