credincios

Forms

credincios m or n (feminine singular credincioasă, masculine plural credincioși, feminine/neuter plural credincioase)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian credință + -ios.^[2][3][4][5] DELR, DEX and Ciorănescu derive it within Romanian, and the DA's Latin source, Vulgar Latin *crēdentiōsus from *crēdentia, is the less likely view, which Ciorănescu calls unnecessary.^[6][3][4][1] DELR, following the DA, takes the senses “unchanging in one's views; exact” from French fidèle and German treu.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (early 16th century), and the corpus of the old psalters has the genitive plural credincioșilor there, in Psalm 100:8.^[3][7] Tiktin cites it from 1 Peter 4:19 in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583).^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant faithful and trustworthy, of a servant, a witness or a promise, and in the Bible of 1688 the good servant is slugă bună și credincioasă.^[9][6] From the same base it came to mean a believer, one who believes in God and follows the faith; as a noun credincioșii are the faithful.^[9][2] Old phrases such as bun credincios “devout” are formed on Slavonic models, and dreptcredincios “orthodox” copies Ancient Greek ὀρθόδοξος (orthódoxos).^[9][3] The noun also meant a confidant or trusted agent, and in the old commerce an overseer of the making of goods.^[9][8]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[3][7]
• c. 1551–1553 – the negative necredincios in a Slavonic–Romanian Gospel.^[3]
• c. 1563–1583 – the Codicele Voronețean.^[8]
• 1570 – credincios in Coresi's Psalter.^[10]
• 1683 – dreptcredincios “orthodox” in Dosoftei.^[3]
• 1688 – slugă bună și credincioasă in the Bucharest Bible, Matthew 25:23.^[9]
• 1691–1697 – credincioșie “fidelity” in Corbea's dictionary.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. faithful, loyal: worthy of trust, devoted to a person, steadfast toward a promise, idea or cause.^[2][8][1]
2. believing, pious: believing in God and keeping the practices of religion.^[2][1]

Noun

1. A believer; in the plural, the faithful.^[2][9]
2. A trusted person, a confidant.^[8][9]

Word family

• necredincios
• credincioșie
• dreptcredincios

Related words

• credință
• crede

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 247
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. crede
4. ^ 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. credință
5. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. credincios
6. ^ a b 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. credincios
7. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 100:8
8. ^ 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, 543
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. credincios
10. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 88:36