caporal

Forms

caporal m (plural caporali)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French caporal,^[2][3][4][1] from Italian caporale (“corporal; commander, originally principal”), from capo (“head, chief”), from Latin caput (“head”).^[3] The DN and MDN give Italian as a second source,^[5][6] and Tiktin derives the word from Italian through several intermediaries.^[7] In French it was one of the Italian military terms borrowed in the 16th century.^[8]

DELR takes capral and căpral from Polish kapral, German Kapral or Russian,^[3] and the DA takes the second from Russian.^[9] Căplar is Hungarian káplár, which Hungarian had from Italian through German;^[3][10] the popular form căprar may come from either of these, and Tamás allows the German short form as well.^[3][10] Ciorănescu derives the popular form from German through Bulgarian капрар (kaprar), but notes that Capidan took the Bulgarian word from Romanian.^[2][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form căpral in Nicolae Costin's chronicle, about 1710, in a count of the dead: „Din cavalerie uciși... 671 căprali și de cei de rând” “killed from the cavalry ... 671 corporals and of the rank and file”.^[9][3][7]

Semantic evolution

The French form replaced căpral in the 19th century;^[12] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 has caporalŭ and explains it with the popular caprar and the German Unteroffizier.^[12] The DA describes the rank as the lowest in the infantry, matching the brigadier of the cavalry and artillery, and marked by two stripes of yellow cloth.^[9] The derivative caporalism “a political regime dominated by the military”, from French caporalisme, is recorded from 1908.^[3] The popular căprar kept the same sense and has its own derivatives: căprăriță “a corporal's wife” is recorded from 1805.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1710 – căprali in Nicolae Costin's chronicle, the first record.^[9][3]
• 1805 – căprăriță “a corporal's wife”, formed on căprar.^[3]
• 1870 – caporalŭ in Costinescu's dictionary.^[12]
• 1908 – caporalism.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. corporal: the military rank above fruntaș and below sergent.^[4][13]
2. A soldier holding this rank; popularly căprar.^[4][13]

Word family

• caporalism

Related words

• căprar
• cap
• Italian caporale

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. caporal
3. ^ 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. caporal
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 142
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. caporal
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. caporal
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. caporal
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ 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. caporal
10. ^ a b Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 178
11. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 2, 223
12. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 155
13. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 291