comun

Forms

comun m or n (feminine singular comună, masculine plural comuni, feminine/neuter plural comune)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French commun, also Latin commūnis (“common, shared”).^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu also gives both and dates the word to the 19th century.^[5] DA has it as a neologism after French, and Tiktin names New Latin and French.^[6][7][7] DELR explains the Latin word as formed con- and the base of mūnus (“duty, service, gift”), compare mūnia (“duties”) and mūnis (“obliging”), with an unattested first sense “sharing the duties with someone”.^[2][8] Wiktionary traces it through Old Latin co(m)moinis to Proto-Italic *kommoinis and Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to change”), and compares Proto-Germanic *gamainiz.^[1] The Romance languages have it as Italian comune, Spanish común and Portuguese comum.^[9]

The Latin derivative commūnicō survived by inheritance in the form Vulgar Latin *comminicō (“to give communion”) as cumineca.^[10] Its doublet comunica was borrowed from Latin in the 18th century.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is Iorgovici's Observații of 1799, in the form comune.^[2] Tiktin has 1805.^[7] The Moldavian civil code of 1833, MDA2's first record, defines it as „acea ce este de obștie a doi sau a mai multora” “what is shared by two or more”.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

Several members of the family are older than the adjective: comunitate is recorded from 1772, at first as comunitaș with a Hungarian pronunciation of the Latin, and the noun comună from about 1800.^[2] From “shared by all” the adjective came to mean “usual, ordinary”, and then “commonplace, of little value”.^[2][3] Scriban lists both, with merele-s poame comune “apples are common fruit” and față comună “a common face”.^[11] In old Transylvanian use, în comun or de comun meant “as a rule, usually”, after German im Allgemeinen.^[2] Grammar, law and mathematics took up substantiv comun “common noun”, drept comun “ordinary law” and numitor comun “common denominator”.^[3][7]

The political words came from French in the 19th century: comunal in 1829, comunism in 1849 and comunist in 1850.^[2]

Timeline

• 1772 – comunitaș, the earliest form of comunitate.^[2]
• 1799 – comune in Iorgovici's Observații.^[2]
• c. 1800 – the noun comună.^[2]
• 1805 – comun.^[7]
• 1829 – comunal.^[2]
• 1833 – the Moldavian civil code defines the word.^[4][6]
• 1842 – comuniune.^[2]
• 1849 – comunism in Barițiu.^[2]
• 1850 – comunist.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. common, shared: belonging to, concerning or used by several people or by all, as in o curte comună, drept comun ordinary law, substantiv comun a common noun, numitor comun a common denominator, a face cauză comună cu cineva to make common cause with someone and, as a noun, în comun together.^[3][4]
2. usual, normal, frequent, as in loc comun a commonplace and a ieși din comun to be out of the ordinary.^[3]
3. ordinary, banal; of poor quality.^[3]

Word family

• anticomunism
• comunal
• comunard
• comună
• comunism
• comunitar
• comunitate
• comuniune
• eurocomunism

Related words

• comunica
• cumineca
• Latin commūnis

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. comun
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 214
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, 476
5. ^ 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. comun
6. ^ 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. comun
7. ^ 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. comun
8. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2091
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2090
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 326