coleg

Forms

coleg m (plural colegi, feminine equivalent colegă)^[1] The first records have the Latin form colega: „Au fost consul Sțipion și colega, adecă tovarăș lui Sțipion, Flaccus” “Scipio was consul, and his colleague, that is, Scipio's companion, Flaccus” (Cantemir).^[2][3] Șincai has colegă as a masculine noun: „S-au dat colegă sau soț lui Gordian” “he was given to Gordian as colleague or partner”.^[2][3] The feminine colegă is recorded from 1925, in Ionel Teodoreanu.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French collègue.^[3][4][1] The old forms ⟨colega⟩ and ⟨colegă⟩ are borrowed from New Latin collēga, the learned Latin word.^[3] Ciorănescu takes the word itself from Latin, and Tiktin and Marcu name both Latin and French.^[5][6][7] The French noun was borrowed from Latin collēga before 1520.^[8]

In Rome the word first meant a fellow member of a college of priests or magistrates.^[3] The Latin word is formed from con- (“together”) and lēgō (“to appoint, to depute”).^[9][1] DELR and the DHLF connect it instead with lēx (“law”), like collēgium.^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is in Cantemir's Hronicul (1717–1723), in the form colega, of a fellow consul in Rome;^[3][6] Tiktin dates the same passage 1722.^[3][6] MDA2 reads the siglum of the same page as the Istoria ieroglifică and dates it 1704.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Used first of the Roman magistrates, the word came to mean anyone who holds the same office, works in the same institution or studies in the same class.^[2][4] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 explains it as a companion in an office or a mission.^[11] The adjectives colegial, from German and French, and colegialitate, after German, are recorded from 1829 and 1866.^[3]

Timeline

• 1717-1723 – colega in Cantemir's Hronicul, the first record.^[3]
• 1829 – the adjective colegial.^[3]
• 1848 – coleg in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[11]
• 1866 – colegialitate “collegiality” in Titu Maiorescu.^[3]
• 1900 – colegian “pupil of a college” in Barcianu's dictionary.^[3]
• 1925 – the feminine colegă in Ionel Teodoreanu.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A colleague: a person who works or studies together with others in the same place, seen in relation to them.^[4][10][1]
2. A classmate, a fellow student: coleg de bancă “deskmate”.^[12][2]
3. A fellow worker or official in the same post or institution: colegii de birou “office colleagues”.^[12][13]

Word family

• colegial
• colegialitate
• colegian
• necolegial

Related words

• Latin collēga

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. coleg
3. ^ 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. coleg
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 205
5. ^ 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. coleg
6. ^ 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. coleg
7. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. coleg
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. collègue
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. collēga
10. ^ 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, 460
11. ^ 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, p. s.v. coleg
12. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 489
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. coleg