demn

Forms

demn m or n (feminine singular demnă, masculine plural demni, feminine/neuter plural demne)^[1] The first form was dign: Țichindeal offers, for faithful service, a „dignă remunerație, cuviincioasă răsplătire” “a worthy remuneration, a fitting reward”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin dignus (“worthy”), reshaped on the model of lemn from lignum and semn from signum.^{[3][4][5][6][1]} The older form dign kept the Latin shape.^[3][6] Ciorănescu dates the borrowing to the 19th century, and DELR adds that some senses follow French digne.^[4][3] Scriban also names French and Italian degno.^[7]

The Latin adjective is formed on decet (“it is fitting”).^[3][8][9] Wiktionary traces it further to Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- (“to take”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is dign in Țichindeal (1808), and Tiktin dates the word to the same year.^[3][6] MDA2's first record of demn is Ioan Tomici's book of advice for the young, printed at Buda in 1827.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The first senses were “deserved, fitting” and “worthy of something”, followed by de, as in demn de laudă “praiseworthy”.^[2][7] Said of people and their bearing, it came to mean “commanding respect, reserved, sober”.^[3][5] DELR also records an old sense “genuine, true”.^[3] The derivatives followed the same path from dign- to demn-: dignitate (1805) became demnitate and dignitar (1854) demnitar.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1805 – dignitate, the later demnitate, in Obradovici.^[3]
• 1808 – dign in Țichindeal, the first record of the adjective.^[3][6]
• 1827 – demn in Tomici's book of advice for the young.^[10]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[11]
• 1854 – dignitar, the later demnitar.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. worthy of something, followed by de: o faptă demnă de laudă “a praiseworthy deed”; also capable, able.^[5][10]
2. Of people or their bearing: commanding respect; dignified, reserved, sober.^[5][12]

Word family

• demnitar
• demnitate
• nedemn

Related words

• Latin dignus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. demn
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. demn
4. ^ a b c 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. demn
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 287
6. ^ 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. demn
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 402
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
10. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 639
11. ^ 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. demn
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. demn