defăima

Forms

a defăima (first-person singular present defăimez, older defaim; third-person singular defăimează, obsolete defaimă; past participle defăimat); first conjugation.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *diffāmiāre (“to defame”), a form of Latin diffāmō (“to spread a report; to defame”) with an /i/ taken from a noun *diffāmia, itself modelled on īnfāmia (“disgrace”).^[3][4][5][6] Tiktin adds that Romanian faimă and faimos were remodelled on fāma and fāmōsus after the verb.^[6] MDA2 names Italian diffamare beside the Latin verb.^[7] The Latin verb is formed with dis- on the noun meaning “report, reputation”.^[8][1]

Ciorănescu and Șăineanu take the verb instead from the noun defaimă, which they derive from the Latin noun.^[9][10] The latinized variants defama, defăma and difăima were remade on the Latin verb.^[3] Candrea and Densusianu explain the old desfăima by a change of prefix, comparing Italian disfamare.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book of 1551–1553.^[3] MDA2 gives the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), in a passage warning against scorning the poor in church for the sake of the rich, the sense “to cast off with contempt”.^[7][11] Coresi's Psalter of 1570 has defăimași “you have spurned” at Psalm 88:37,^[12] and Tiktin cites the Psaltirea Scheiană at Psalm 73.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The old texts use it mainly for “to despise, scorn, spurn”: the Bible of 1688 has „Inima înfrântă și smerită D-zeu nu o va defăima” “a broken and humble heart God will not despise”.^[6] MDA2 lists a whole range of old senses: to underrate, to humiliate, to loathe, to profane, to condemn, to stigmatize, and, in an old law code, to cancel a document.^[7][6] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of the 17th century gloss defăimat with Slavonic words for “shameful” and “despised”.^[13]

The modern sense “to speak ill of, slander” was present from the beginning and is now the main one, with the reflexive “to disgrace oneself”.^[4][11] A regional reflexive a se desfăima “to change one's shape” is recorded in folk poetry.^[7][1]

Its derivatives are old: defăimător “slanderer” from 1651, defăimătură in the Bible of 1688 and defăimăciune in Cantemir in 1698.^[3] The learned difamant and difamație, borrowed from French in 1848, belong to the same Latin family.^[3]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book, the first record.^[3]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[7][11]
• 1570 – defăimași in Coresi's Psalter.^[12]
• 1651 – defăimător in the Psalter of Alba Iulia.^[3]
• 1660 – defăimat in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1688 – “to despise” and defăimătură in the Bucharest Bible.^[6][3]
• 1698 – defăimăciune in Cantemir.^[3]
• 1848 – difamant and difamație in Negulici.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To speak ill of someone or something; to slander, defame, disparage.^[4][7][1]
2. (reflexive, rare) To make oneself a laughing stock, compromise oneself.^[4][14]
3. (dated) To despise, look down on; to humiliate.^[4][7][1]
4. (obsolete) To censure, criticize severely.^[7][1]

Word family

• defaimă
• defăimăciune
• defăimător
• defăimătură
• defăimeț
• defăimare
• defăimat

Related words

• faimă
• Italian diffamare

Usage notes

The present was defaim, defaimă in the older language and in Pann and Negruzzi; the modern standard form is defăimez.^[14][2] The old noun defaimă “slander” has the same spelling as the old third-person form.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan” (1998), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, 2nd ed., București: Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 270
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. defăima
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 281
5. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 477
6. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. defăima
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 624
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. diffāmō
9. ^ 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. defaimă
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 195
11. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. defăima
12. ^ 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 88:37
13. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. defăimat
14. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 36
15. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. defaimă