căsnicie

Forms

căsnicie f (plural căsnicii)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian casnic + -ie, from the adjective casnic “of the house; married”.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} That adjective is formed on casă “house” with the suffix -nic, and the noun is from Latin casa.^[6][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1691–1697, with the sense “married life, household”.^[5] Tiktin's earliest record is from 1703.^[4] MDA2's first record is Nicolae Costin's chronicle, whose year, 1601, is taken from the title of the work, the year its narrative ends.^[2] Its first sense there is the obsolete “management of a household”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Two senses are old: running a household, and the life of a married couple.^[2][4] The base casnic, recorded from 1642, also meant “married person” in the old language, as in a law text Tiktin quotes: „Casnicii se vor despărți de fămeile sale pentru preacurvia” “married men shall be separated from their wives for adultery”.^[7] Scriban still gave only “household, ménage”, and CADE both senses.^[9][10] Modern dictionaries keep only married life, so that căsnicie is a near-synonym of căsătorie.^[3][11]

DELR records related forms of the 17th to 19th centuries: căsnicesc “conjugal” from 1691–1697, căsnici “to live in marriage” from 1837 and căsnicește “as in a marriage” from 1871.^[5]

Timeline

• 1691–1697 – căsnicie “married life, household”, the first record, with căsnicesc “conjugal”.^[5]
• 1703 – recorded with the senses “domestic life, marriage”.^[4]
• 1837 – the verb căsnici “to live in marriage”.^[5]
• 1871 – the adverb căsnicește.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. marriage, married life: the life a husband and wife share; căsătorie: Au sărbătorit zece ani de căsnicie.^[3][2][1]
2. (obsolete) Running a household; gospodărie, household.^[2][9]

Related words

• casnic
• casă
• căsători

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 333
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 161
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. căsnicíe
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. casă
6. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 305
7. ^ 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. cásnic
8. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 45
9. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 250
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 372