celebritate

Forms

celebritate f (plural celebrități)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French célébrité (“celebrity”), together with Latin celebritās, a 19th-century neologism.^[2][3][4] Tiktin explains it from the Romanian adjective for “famous”, comparing the French word, while MDA2 gives French alone and Scriban Latin alone.^[5][6][7] The Latin noun is formed from celeber (“crowded, frequented”) with the suffix -tās.^[8]

The adjective celebru, recorded from 1820, has the same double source: French célèbre and the Latin adjective.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1835, with the senses “being celebrated” and “a famous person”.^[3][5] MDA2 dates it to Ion Ghica's letters to Alecsandri.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word first meant a crowd, a busy gathering.^[8][9] 19th-century Romanian dictionaries kept the old sense beside fame: Costinescu gives “solemnity, pompous celebration” as well as “great renown”, and Barcianu translates it both Feierlichkeit and Berühmtheit.^[10][11] Today it means only fame and a famous person.^[2] With a pejorative word it is ironic: Vlahuță writes of eroul de tristă celebritate al zilei “the sadly famous hero of the day”.^[12]

Timeline

• 1820 – celebru “famous”.^[3]
• 1835 – celebritate, the first record.^[3][5]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms, “great reputation of a name or a person”.^[13]
• 1870 – also “solemnity, celebration” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of being celebrated; fame, renown, reputation.^[2][6]
2. A person who enjoys great fame and prestige; a celebrity: o celebritate a teatrului românesc.^[2][6]

Related words

• celebru
• celebra
• French célébrité
• Latin celebritas

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 168
3. ^ a b c d e 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. celebru
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. celebritate
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. celebritate
6. ^ 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, 355
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 256
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 174
11. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 90
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 385
13. ^ 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, p. s.v. celebritate