cezar

Forms

cezar m (plural cezari)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin caesar, the Latin title taken from the surname of Gaius Julius Caesar, which his successors adopted until it came to mean “emperor”.^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu dates the Latinate form to the 19th century.^[5] DELR names a double source, borrowed from French César (for the stress on the last syllable) and the Latin of the neologisms, and the dictionary of neologisms by Marcu gives both Latin and French.^[6][7]

The older variant chesar came by another road: it is Old Church Slavonic кесарь (kesarĭ), from Byzantine Greek καῖσαρ (kaîsar), itself from the Latin title.^[6][8] The Latin title also reached German as Kaiser and Russian as царь (carʹ);^[1][9][10] Romanian țar goes back to it as well, so that the three Romanian words are doublets.^[1][9][10] The origin of the Roman name itself was already disputed in antiquity: Pliny tied it to a child cut (caedō (“to cut”)) from the mother's womb, Festus to a child born with a full head of hair, caesariēs (“head of hair”).^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the word to 1561, from the older variant chesar(iu) “Roman emperor”, later “the Holy Roman Emperor”.^[6] MDA2 cites chesar from Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[8] The Latinate cezar is a 19th-century form;^[12] MDA2 and DA quote it from Eminescu: „Cezarul trece palid, în gânduri adâncit” “the Caesar passes, pale, deep in thought”.^[5][13][2]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the Roman emperors, at the start those of the family of Julius Caesar; by extension it came to mean any emperor.^[2][3] The Șăineanu dictionary of 1929 notes that it was applied in particular to Napoleon.^[12] NODEX also gives the sense “imperial heir”, and DELR includes the heirs of the emperors in its definition.^[14][6] The DLRLC quotes a figurative use by Bogza, who calls the Olt river “an aquatic Caesar” that gathers everything due to it.^[15]

The old form chesar also meant the Austrian emperor.^[6] It gave chesaricesc “of the Austrian emperor” (1723), modelled on German kaiserlich, and chezaro-crăiesc (1733), modelled on German kaiserlich-königlich.^[6][5] The medical cezariană “caesarean section” (1842) is from French césarienne.^[6]

Timeline

• 1561 – the variant chesar(iu) “Roman emperor”, the first record.^[6]
• 1723 – chesaricesc, later cezaricesc, “of the Austrian emperor”.^[6]
• 1733 – chesarocrăiesc “imperial and royal”.^[6]
• 1842 – operație cezariană “caesarean section”.^[6]
• 1871 – the rare adjective cezarin “imperial”.^[6]
• 1880 – cezarian “of Caesar, of imperial rule”.^[6]
• 1883 – cezarism “Caesarism, dictatorial rule”.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A title given to the Roman emperors, at first to those of the family of Julius Caesar.^[3][13]
2. By extension, an emperor or absolute ruler.^[3][14]
3. An imperial heir.^[14][6]

Word family

• cezarian
• cezariană
• cezaric
• cezaricesc
• cezarin
• cezarism
• cezaro-crăiesc
• cezarotomie

Related words

• țar
• Latin caesar

Usage notes

The stress varies: DEX gives cezár and also cézar.^[3] The capitalised Cezar is a man's name and the name of Julius Caesar.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. cezar
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 174
4. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. cezar
5. ^ a b c 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. cezar
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. cezar
7. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. cezar
8. ^ 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, 375
9. ^ a b Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 176
10. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 464
11. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 121
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, 368
14. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. cezar
15. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 399