caracter

Forms

caracter n (plural caractere)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin character, and DELR gives French caractère as a second source of the modern word;^[2] DEX and MDA2 name the same two, and Wiktionary gives the Latin word through French.^[3][4][1] The oldest form, haractir, is from Modern Greek χαρακτήρ (charaktír), and the variant stressed on the second syllable is borrowed from German Charakter.^[2][5]

The Latin word first meant a brand or mark burned or cut in, and is from Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr), from χαράσσω (kharássō, “to cut, scratch, engrave”).^[2][6] The DA glosses the Greek noun as the tool for drawing or stamping lines, the mark it made, a letter, and a striking quality.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Greek form haractir, in Dosoftei in 1679.^[2][5] MDA2's first record, in Gheorghe Șincai's chronicle, has the sense “sign cut or written”: a prince is allowed to strike coins with his own stamp, „să bați bani însemnați cu caracterul tău”.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The word came in with the sense of the Greek and Latin, a mark or written sign, and was used for letters of an alphabet and for printing type.^[6][4] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 gives the full French range: a letter, a title or rank (caracterul de ambasador), and a distinctive quality of a thing or person.^[7] The moral senses grew from the last: a person's nature, and then firmness of will, as in om de caracter “a man of character”.^[8][3] From the 1830s the family grew with French loans such as caracteriza (1837) and caracteristic (1821), with older Greek-based forms such as haractirisi beside them.^[2]

Timeline

• 1679 – haractir in Dosoftei.^[2][5]
• 1787 – the verb caracterisi, from Greek, “to characterize”.^[2]
• 1821 – caracteristic “specific”.^[2]
• 1837 – caracteriza, from French.^[2]
• 1870 – Costinescu records the senses “letter”, “rank” and “distinctive quality”.^[7]
• 1927 – caracterologie, the study of character.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. character, personality: the set of a person's basic psychological and moral traits, shown in how they act and think; also a firm moral personality, or the quality of perseverance and integrity: om de caracter “a man of character”.^[3][1]
2. A character in a literary work, an individual with complex traits; in comedie de caracter “comedy of character”, dans de caracter “character dance”.^[3][9]
3. A distinctive trait of a thing or phenomenon; a property of an organism: caractere ereditare “hereditary characters”.^[3][1]
4. A letter or sign of writing; a piece of printing type; a typeface of one family and size.^[3][4][1]

Word family

• caracterial
• caracteristic
• caracteristică
• caracteriza
• caracterizator
• caracterologic
• caracterologie

Usage notes

The plural is caractere; the old plural caracteruri is recorded by MDA2.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. caracter
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 143
4. ^ 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, 294
5. ^ 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. caracter
6. ^ 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. caracter
7. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 158
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 230
9. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. caracter