civil

Forms

civil m or n (feminine singular civilă, masculine plural civili, feminine/neuter plural civile)^[1] As a noun: civil m (plural civili) “civilian”.^[1] An older and popular variant țivil follows the German pronunciation;^[2][3][4] Russo wrote of „dreptățile politice și țivile” “political and civil rights”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French civil, itself a borrowing from Latin cīvīlis (“of citizens, civil”), from cīvis (“citizen”).^[3][1] MDA2, DEX and Wiktionary name both French and Latin as sources;^[5][4][1][6] Tiktin says the Latin word came in both directly and through other languages.^[5][4][1][6] The variant țivil is from German zivil, whose ⟨z⟩ is pronounced /ts/.^[3]

French borrowed it in 1290 as a legal term; in Latin, the adjective also rendered Ancient Greek πολιτικός (politikós) in its two senses, “social” and “civilized”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the word to 1789, in the sense “concerning the citizens of a state, as opposed to soldiers and clergy, especially in their legal relations”.^[3] Tiktin's first record is of 1804, MDA2's of 1817 (the Uricariul).^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

The word came in with the vocabulary of law and administration: drept civil “civil law”, cod civil “civil code”, stare civilă “civil status” and război civil “civil war”; the DA quotes Bălcescu on a kingdom that fell into turburări civile “civil strife”.^[2][6] Negulici (1848) already has the noun, “one who is not a soldier”, and the legal moarte civilă, the loss of a citizen's rights.^[8] The noun now means a civilian, a person in ordinary clothes rather than a uniform or a cassock.^[4]

Scriban records a figurative sense “polite, well-bred” and a civil marriage, one made at the town hall without a priest.^[9] The family grew with French loans: civiliza (1821), civilitate (1824), civilizat (1829) and civilizațiune, later civilizație (1789), each with a German-style variant in ⟨ț⟩.^[3]

Timeline

• 1789 – first record of civil and of civilizațiune.^[3]
• 1804 – the first record Tiktin gives.^[6]
• 1817 – MDA2's first record, in the Uricariul.^[5]
• 1821 – civiliza “to civilize”.^[3]
• 1824 – civilitate “politeness”, and the rare țiviliș “civilian”, from Hungarian.^[3]
• 1829 – civilizat “civilized”.^[3]
• 1848 – the noun “one who is not a soldier” and moarte civilă in Negulici.^[8]
• 1858 – civic “civic”, from French and Latin.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Concerning the citizens of a state and their legal relations with one another and with the state, as distinct from soldiers and clergy: drept civil “civil law”, stare civilă “civil status”.^[4][5]
2. Not military: haine civile “civilian clothes”.^[4][10]
3. război civil: a civil war, an armed conflict between groups of the same country.^[4]
4. (dated) polite, well-bred.^[9]

Noun

1. A civilian: a citizen who is neither a soldier nor a priest; a person in ordinary clothes.^[4][1]

Word family

• civilie
• civilist
• civilitate
• civiliza
• civilizat
• civilizator
• civilizație
• necivilizat
• semicivilizat

Related words

• civic
• cetățean
• Latin cīvīlis

Usage notes

Parte civilă is the party in a criminal trial who claims damages for the harm done by the offence.^[4]

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. civil
3. ^ 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. civil
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 192
5. ^ 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, 427
6. ^ 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. civil
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 292
10. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. civil