creatură

Forms

creatură f (plural creaturi)^[1] An old and rare plural was creature: Negruzzi writes of „căpitani creature ale lui” “captains who were his creatures”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowed from Late Latin creātūra (“creature, creation”).^[4][5][1] Later it was also borrowed from French créature, Italian creatura and German Kreatur.^[4] The DEX and MDA2 give French and Latin, and the Academy dictionary took it to be modelled on the French word.^[6][3][2] Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of crea.^[7]

The Latin noun is formed on the future participle of creō (“to create, make”).^[1] The verb first meant “to make grow” and is related to crēscō (“to grow”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1681, in Dosoftei's prayer book, in the sense “created being”: „Cu a ta vârtute împreună strâng creatura” “with thy power I hold creation together”.^[4][5] MDA2 gives Negruzzi's writings as its first record.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From “a being created by God” the word came to mean a human being as opposed to God.^[2][9] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 already records the figurative sense “a man who owes his position or wealth to someone else”, which DELR also dates.^[4][10] Negruzzi uses it so of captains promoted by a prince.^[2]

A disparaging use, “individual, type”, appears in Eminescu: „Aceste creaturi / Nici rușine n-au” “these creatures have no shame”.^[2][5] The modern dictionaries mark the word as often pejorative.^[6] In Moldova it means a scoundrel.^[11]

Timeline

• 1681 – creatura “creation, created being” in Dosoftei's prayer book, the first record.^[4][5]
• 1848 – the figurative sense “protégé” in Negulici's dictionary.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A living being, a creature; a human being.^[6][3]
2. (often pejorative) An individual, a type.^[6][3]
3. A protégé: a person who owes his position to an influential patron.^[3][12]
4. (religion) Anything created by God.^[3][2]

Related words

• crea
• creator
• creație
• Latin creō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. creatură
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 542
4. ^ a b c d e 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. crea
5. ^ 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. creatură
6. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 247
7. ^ 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. crea
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. creatură
10. ^ 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. creatură
11. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 81
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 572