cardinal

Forms

cardinal m or n (feminine singular cardinală, masculine plural cardinali, feminine/neuter plural cardinale)^[1]

Etymology

The adjective is borrowed from Latin cardinālis (“principal”), a learned Latin borrowing, also French cardinal.^[2][3][4][1] Tiktin takes it from New Latin and the adjective's senses after French.^[5] The noun, the title of the Catholic prelate, is older;^[2] DELR derives it from the same Latin word, German Kardinal and Polish kardynał, and explains the old variants by other languages: gărdinar and gărdinariu from Modern Greek καρδινάλιος (kardinálios), cardinaliș from Hungarian kardinális.^[2]

The Latin adjective is formed on cardō (“door hinge, pivot”) with the suffix -ālis, and first meant “serving as a hinge”.^[6][1] The sense “principal, on which something turns” is Late Latin: the cardinal winds, numbers and virtues.^[7][8] The origin of the Latin noun is unknown.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is recorded first, in 1600, for the church dignitary.^[2][5] DELR dates the adjective to 1757.^[2] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 explains the noun as one of the 70 prelates of the Roman curia who elect the pope.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The derivative cardinalie “the rank of cardinal” is recorded from 1702, and cardinalat, from French and Latin, from 1839.^[2] The adjective spread with the grammatical and geographical terms număr cardinal “cardinal number”, puncte cardinale “cardinal points” and virtuți cardinale “cardinal virtues”.^[5][10] From the red of the cardinals' dress the noun names red animals, the American bird, butterflies and snails, and the colour roșu-cardinal “purple red”.^[5][3] Wiktionary also records it for a table grape.^[1]

Timeline

• 1600 – the noun, “cardinal of the Catholic Church”.^[2][5]
• 1702 – cardinalie “rank of cardinal”.^[2]
• 1757 – the adjective “principal”.^[2]
• 1839 – cardinalat “cardinalate”.^[2]
• 1848 – the noun in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[9]
• 1886 – Barcianu has the adjective and număr cardinal “cardinal number”.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. principal, essential, fundamental.^[3][4]
2. punct cardinal: each of the four cardinal points of the horizon.^[3]
3. numeral cardinal: a cardinal numeral, expressing a whole number or a number of things.^[3]

Noun

1. A cardinal: a title of the Catholic Church, held by the prelates of the pope's council from among whom the new pope is chosen; a person with that title.^[3][4]
2. roșu-cardinal “cardinal red”, a purple red.^[3]
3. A small red bird of the finch family living in America.^[4][1]

Word family

• cardinalat
• cardinalist

Usage notes

DELR and the older dictionaries give the adjective and the noun as two headwords, cardinal¹ and cardinal², but they share a source and DEX treats them as one word.^[2][3] In mathematics MDN also records a neuter noun, “cardinal number”.^[12]

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 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. cardinal
3. ^ 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. 146
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 298
5. ^ 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. cardinal
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cardinālis
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. cardinālis
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 232
11. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 86
12. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. cardinal