creștin

Forms

creștin m (plural creștini, feminine equivalent creștină)^[1] Scriban notes that the Psaltirea Scheiană also has hristosean.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin Chrīstiānus (“Christian”), from Chrīstus, which is from Ancient Greek Χριστός (Khristós, “anointed”), from χρίω (khríō, “to anoint”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} The Greek word is a calque of the Hebrew title of the Messiah, “the anointed”.^[3]

Latin /stj/ normally became /ʃ/ in Romanian, as in ușă from ustium, so the regular outcome would have been ⟨creșin⟩.^[3][7] Candrea and Densusianu explain the /ʃt/ by a later entry of the word, after the change had run its course;^[3][4] Nandriș and Sala by the influence of the name of Christ;^[3][4] Ciorănescu by the conservatism of a religious word.^[3][4] The lack of palatalisation of /tj/ is common to all Romance, which FEW explains by the word's lasting contact with the language of the Church.^[3] DELR also records Cihac's old derivation from Old Church Slavonic.^[3][8]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian crishtin and Megleno-Romanian criștin.^[3][9][10] Its Romance cognates include Italian cristiano, French chrétien, Spanish cristiano and Portuguese cristão.^[11][12] Romanian also had a learned hristian, from Greek, and cretin goes back to the same Latin word through French.^[4][1][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1560–1561.^[3] The Codicele Voronețean (1 Peter 1:2), which MDA2 and Tiktin cite, speaks of those Jews „ce au fost creștini” “who had become Christians”.^[5][14][15] Coresi's Evanghelia cu învățătură addresses „iubiților creștini” “beloved Christians”.^[15]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is a baptised follower of Christ, opposed to the pagan and the Jew; as an adjective it means “of Christianity”, as in era creștină “the Christian era”.^[15][14][5] In popular speech the word came to mean simply “a person, a man”, often a decent or poor one: măi creștine! “my good man!”.^[14][4][6] Pușcariu notes that Albanian, Rhaeto-Romance, French and Italian dialects have the same sense; the DA adds Greek and Bulgarian.^[11][15] Ciorănescu rejects Speidel's idea that this sense came from Russian.^[4] Șăineanu records a popular use for a Romanian, the nation being identified with the Orthodox faith.^[16]

Ciorănescu and Graur take creștinătate “Christendom” as a Romanian derivative;^[4][3] DELR, Candrea and Densusianu and Tiktin derive it from Latin christiānitās.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1560–1561 – creștin in Coresi's Tetraevanghel, the first record.^[3]
• 1560 – the derivative creștinătate in Coresi's Catehism.^[3]
• c. 1563–1583 – creștini in the Codicele Voronețean.^[5][14]
• 1572 – Creștin as a personal name in Muntenia.^[17]
• 1620 – the verb creștina “to baptise” in Moxa's chronicle.^[3]
• 1870 – anticreștin in Costinescu's dictionary, after French antichrétien.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Christian: of or relating to Christianity.^[6][1]

Noun

1. A Christian, a person who has been baptised and believes in Jesus Christ.^[6][1]
2. (popular) A person, a man, an individual: un creștin de treabă “a decent fellow”.^[6][5][1]

Word family

• anticreștin
• anticreștinesc
• creștina
• creștinătate
• creștinăție
• creștinesc
• creștinește
• creștinism
• încreștina
• necreștin
• precreștin

Related words

• hristian
• cretin
• Aromanian crishtin

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 364
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. creștin
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. creștin
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, 547
6. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 249
7. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. creștin
8. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 81
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 312
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, 70
11. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 36
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1888
13. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 87
14. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. creștin
15. ^ a b c d 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. creștin
16. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 177
17. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. creștin