căpitan

Forms

căpitan m (plural căpitani, feminine equivalent căpităneasă)^[1] Old variants are capitan and căpetean, and Transylvania has copitan.^[2] Jipescu calls the prince „căpeteanu căpetenilor” “the captain of captains”.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian capitano, which Ciorănescu thinks came into Romanian in the Middle Ages, probably by a Levantine route.^[4][1] The dictionaries do not agree on the route.^[2][5] DEX gives Italian, with a second source in Russian капитан (kapitan), comparing Hungarian kapitány, and MDA2 the same two sources.^[5][6] DELR lists Modern Greek καπετάνιος (kapetánios) after the SDLR, the Hungarian word after DA, possibly, in Moldavia, Polish kapitan, and later Russian, and adds the Italian and Bulgarian капитан (kapitan) that DA and DEX name.^[2] DER calls Sanzewitsch's Russian source unnecessary.^[4] The variant căpetean was reshaped after căpetenie.^[2]

The Italian word is from Late Latin capitāneus (“chief”), formed on caput (“head”).^[1][7] The same Late Latin word gave Old Italian capitanio and Old French chevetaigne, and Romanian căpătâi “head of a bed”, a doublet.^[8][1] The Greek form is from capetanio, and the word spread across the Balkans: Serbo-Croatian kapetan, Albanian kapitan and Turkish kaptan.^[9][4][10] The Hungarian word, first recorded about 1458, is a wandering word too.^[11][12]

It survives south of the Danube as Aromanian cãpitan “chief of brigands”, which Papahagi takes from Italian through Greek.^[13][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a document of 1563.^[2][3] MDA2 starts with the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583).^[6] The early sense is the commander of a body of troops: the old law code says „slujitorul este dator să ajute căpitanul său” “the soldier must help his captain”.^[3][14]

Semantic evolution

In the principalities the word named several officers: the căpitan de județ who led a troop of about a thousand men in each district, the căpitan de târg “police chief”, the căpitan de margine “border captain”, and căpitan de codru.^[3] Scriban adds that in Wallachia a căpitan commanded a fortress, as the pârcălab did in Moldavia.^[15] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has „un căpitan de 50 de oameni” “a captain of fifty men”.^[14]

The modern rank between lieutenant and major, the master of a ship and the captain of a sports team came later.^[5][2] The Ottoman admiral was capudan-pașa from 1627 and, after the Romanian word, căpitan-pașa from about 1730, both from the Turkish title.^[2] Folk sayings use the word: a fi fata banului, sora căpitanului is said of proud girls, and ori Stan, ori căpitan of staking everything on one throw.^[14][6]

Timeline

• 1563 – first record, in a document.^[2][3]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[6]
• 1627 – capudan-pașa “Ottoman admiral”.^[2]
• 1640 – căpitănie “captaincy”.^[2]
• 1645 – căpitănesc “of a captain”.^[2]
• 1654 – captan, from Ottoman Turkish, and vel-căpitan “great captain”.^[2]
• 1688 – „un căpitan de 50 de oameni” in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]
• 1720 – căpităneasă “captain's wife”.^[2]
• 1829 – subcăpitan.^[2]
• 1871 – the diminutive căpitănaș.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. captain: the officer's rank above lieutenant and below major; an officer of this rank; in the navy, căpitan-locotenent “lieutenant commander”.^[5]
2. The master of a ship: căpitan de port “harbour master”.^[5]
3. (dated) The commander of an army or part of one; a leader of outlaws;^[5][6] căpitan de poștă “postmaster”.^[5][6]
4. The player who leads a sports team.^[5]

Word family

• căpitănaș
• căpităneasă
• căpitănel
• căpitănesc
• căpitănie
• căpitănoi
• subcăpitan

Related words

• căpătâi
• căpetenie
• cap
• capitanat
• Aromanian cãpitan
• Italian capitano

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. căpitan
3. ^ 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. căpitan
4. ^ a b c 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. căpitan
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. 158
6. ^ 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, 326
7. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1634
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 631
10. ^ a b 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, 204
11. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 359
12. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
13. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 269
14. ^ 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. căpitan
15. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 247