biserică

Forms

biserică f (plural biserici)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin basilica, used by the Christians for a church; in classical Latin a basilica was a large public building for courts, assemblies and trade.^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} The Latin word is from Ancient Greek βασιλική (basilikḗ, “royal”), the feminine of an adjective used for the stoa of the archon king at Athens, βασιλικὴ στοά (basilikḕ stoá), from βασιλεύς (basileús, “king”).^[2][7] The use of the word for Christian churches began under Constantine the Great.^[2][7]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian bisearicã, Megleno-Romanian băsęrică and Istro-Romanian basęrikę.^[3][2][8] Elsewhere in Romance it lives on as the word for a church only in Dalmatian basalka and in northern Italian dialects and in Romansh baselgia; the other Romance languages took Latin ecclēsia instead.^[2][3][9] The REW notes that it became the general word for a church in the East, in regions without large cities.^[9]

The old texts have ⟨băsearecă⟩ and ⟨besearecă⟩ for the modern ⟨biserică⟩.^[2][10] Sala explains the vowels: the unstressed Latin /a/ of the first syllable became /ă/, as in dialectal ⟨băserică⟩, and in some dialects this /ă/ became /e/ in a soft position, giving ⟨biserică⟩.^[11] A syncopated ⟨bisercă⟩ is regional.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of about 1500, in the form beseárecă.^[2] The Psaltirea Scheiană has băsearecă (Psalm 17:8), and MDA2 dates the word from the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583).^[12][10][4] In the old language it also meant the congregation, the community of believers.^[10][4]

Semantic evolution

The word names both the building of Christian worship and the institution and community of Christians, as in Biserica Ortodoxă “the Orthodox Church”.^[5][4] In slang it has meant a tavern.^[3] Proverbs and phrases draw on the church as a model of virtue: nimeni nu e ușă de biserică “no one is a church door”, that is, no one is without fault.^[10][5] Tiktin explains the phrase își mănâncă credința ca țiganii biserica by a tale of Gypsies who built a church of cheese and ate it.^[10]

The neologism bazilică “basilica” is a doublet of the same Latin word.^[3][7][1] Derivatives are old: bisericesc “ecclesiastical” from 1582, bisericuță “small church” from the turn of the 18th century, and bisericos “churchgoing, devout” from the end of the 18th century.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – beseárecă in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4]
• c. 1573–1578 – băsearecă in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[12][10]
• 1582 – besericesc “of the church” in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[2]
• 1681 – Dosoftei's a se beserica “to go to church”.^[2]
• 1693–1714 – bisericuță “small church” in Radu Greceanu.^[2]
• 1790 – bisericaș “sexton”.^[2]
• 1780–1801 – bisericos “devout” in Micu's dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A church: a building for Christian worship.^[5][4][1]
2. The institution of Christianity as a whole.^[5][4]
3. The community of Christians; the faithful of one local congregation or denomination.^[5][4]
4. (slang) A tavern.^[3]

Word family

• bisericaș
• bisericesc
• bisericește
• bisericos
• bisericuce
• bisericuță
• îmbiserici

Related words

• bazilică
• Latin basilica

Usage notes

A (nu) fi ușă de biserică “(not) to be a church door” is said of a person who does (not) keep to strict morals, and by extension who is (not) honest.^[5][4] A lua calea bisericii is to turn devout.^[5][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. biserică
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. biserică
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 211
5. ^ 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. 106
6. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 17
7. ^ 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. biserică
8. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 972
10. ^ 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. biserică
11. ^ Sala, Marius (1970), Contribuții la fonetica istorică a limbii române, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 64
12. ^ 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 17:8