comisar

Forms

comisar m (plural comisari)^[1] Old variants include comâșar, in a document of 1737, and comisarăș, comisareș, comisariș and comișer.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a neologism that entered Romanian by several routes: borrowed from Medieval Latin commissarius in the 17th century, and later from French commissaire, German Kommissar and Russian комиссар (komissar).^[3][2][4][5] DEX gives French alone, and Russian for the Soviet sense “people's commissar”.^[6] Ciorănescu notes that the Russian source proposed by Sanzewitsch is unlikely for the older word, which seems to be recorded in Romanian before it is in Russian.^[7] The Medieval Latin word is a derivative of Latin committō (“to entrust”);^[3][8] the Russian one came from German.^[9]

The old variants ⟨comisarăș⟩, ⟨comisareș⟩ and ⟨comisariș⟩ come from Hungarian kommiszárius and kommiszáros, and ⟨comâșar⟩ and ⟨comișer⟩ from an unattested *komisár, as Tamás showed.^[3] The Aromanian word, Aromanian cumisar (“police chief”), has a separate source: Italian commessario, through Modern Greek κουμεσάρις (koumesáris).^[7][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Miron Costin's chronicle (1675), about the Poles sending the Cossacks two commissioners to govern and judge them: „le trimitea câte doi Domni Comisari, să le fie mai mari”.^[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was a delegate sent by a government on a temporary mission, as in Costin and in the 18th-century documents.^[5][3] In the 19th century the title passed to officials of the police, the army and the administration: comisar de poliție, the head of a police station, comisar regal, the prosecutor at a court martial, and comisar al guvernului, the state's delegate to a bank.^[12][4][5] The Soviet comisar al poporului “people's commissar”, a member of the government until 1946, came with Russian.^[6][13] MDA2 also records a character called comisar in the folk game mânzulica, played at wakes.^[4]

Timeline

• 1675 – first record, in Miron Costin's chronicle.^[3][2]
• 1737 – the variant comâșar in a document.^[2]
• 1745 – comisarul in a letter published by Iorga.^[5]
• 1748 – comisariat, in the variant comisariatuș.^[3]
• 1839 – ipocomisar “police subcommissioner”.^[3]
• 1857 – subcomisar, in Polizu's dictionary.^[3]
• 1932 – the regional comisaș “police agent”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A police officer, the head of a police station.^[6][14]
2. comisar militar: the commander of a military recruiting office.^[6]
3. (historical) comisar al poporului: a people's commissar, a member of the Soviet government until 1946.^[6]
4. A person given special powers by a higher authority; a commissioner, an agent with a mandate.^[6][4][1]

Word family

• comisariat
• subcomisar

Related words

• comisie
• comite
• emisar

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. comisar
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. comisar
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, 470
5. ^ 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. comisar
6. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 210
7. ^ a b 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. comisar
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 2, 573
10. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 206
11. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 328
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 321
13. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. comisar
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. comisar