cardiac

Forms

cardiac m or n (feminine singular cardiacă, masculine plural cardiaci, feminine/neuter plural cardiace)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French cardiaque and, as DEX, MDA2 and DILF add, borrowed from Latin cardiacus.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The DA calls it a neologism from French, and Scriban derived it from Greek.^[6][7]

The French word, recorded from 1372, comes from the same Latin adjective, which meant “suffering from the stomach” and “of the heart”, and which is from Ancient Greek καρδιακός (kardiakós), a derivative of καρδία (kardía, “heart; stomach”).^[8][2] The double meaning of the Greek noun explains why the Latin adjective referred to both the heart and the stomach.^[9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1843, with the sense “relating to the heart”.^[2][10] Costinescu (1870) glosses cardiacŭ as a medicine for the heart, a tonic, and in anatomy as “of the heart”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th century the word often described a heart tonic, medicament cardiac.^[10][11] The noun cardiac “a person with a heart disease” is in CADE (1931).^[12][6] Romanian borrowed from French a family of medical terms on the same Greek root, such as cardie (1843), cardită (1939) and endocard (1939).^[2]

Timeline

• 1843 – the first record.^[2][10]
• 1843 – cardie “the upper opening of the stomach”.^[2]
• 1870 – cardiacŭ in Costinescu's dictionary.^[11]
• 1931 – the noun “heart patient” in CADE.^[12]
• 1939 – cardită and endocard.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. cardiac: of or relating to the heart.^[3][1]
2. Suffering from a heart disease.^[3][4]

Noun

1. A person with a heart disease.^[3][13]

Related words

• cardie
• cardită
• endocard
• miocard
• pericard
• French cardiaque
• Latin cardiacus

Usage notes

The ending is pronounced in two syllables, -di-ac.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. cardiac
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 145
4. ^ 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, 297
5. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria
6. ^ a b 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. cardiac
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cardiacus
10. ^ 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. cardiac
11. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci
12. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 336