dramă

Forms

dramă f (plural drame)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French drame, with Latin drāma as a second source in DEX, MDA2 and the DLR.^[2][3][4] DELR adds Modern Greek δράμα (dráma), Italian dramma and, for Transylvania, German Drama.^[5] Marcu and Maneca name the French, Italian, Latin and Greek words together.^[6] The sense “serious film” follows English drama.^[5]

The French word is a 1657 adaptation of the Late Latin noun, which comes from Ancient Greek δρᾶμα (drâma, “deed, action; stage play”).^[7][1] This is formed δράω (dráō, “to do, act”) with the result suffix -μα (-ma).^[1][8] The sense of a genre between tragedy and comedy arose in French in the middle of the 18th century, with Diderot.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR, Tiktin and the DLR date the first record to 1772, in the Etiopice.^[5][9][4] There it means a stage play in general, a sense DELR marks as old and rare.^[5] In 1830 the Curierul românesc reported „o dramă cu cântece, a lui Metastasie” “a drama with songs, by Metastasio”.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

In the 1830s the word named a play as a literary form, and a definition of 1838 calls it a poetic story performed on the stage.^[4] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 has it as a poem written for the theatre.^[10] Later dictionaries narrow it to the modern genre that mixes tragic and comic elements, with the tragic prevailing.^[2][6] Dramă lirică or muzicală was an old name for opera.^[2][3]

The figurative sense “tragic event, misfortune” follows, which gave dramă pasională “crime of passion” and the inner conflict that causes suffering.^[2][3] Scriban in 1939 already had the figurative sense.^[11] The family began with dramaticon and dramaticesc in Eustatievici's grammar of 1757.^[5] Newer formations include dedramatiza (1963), dramă-spectacol (1975) and docudramă (1982), the last from docudrama.^[5][12]

Timeline

• 1772 – dramă in the Etiopice, the first record.^[5][4]
• 1830 – a drama with songs in the Curierul românesc.^[3][4]
• 1831 – the adjective dramatic in Heliade-Rădulescu's grammar.^[5]
• 1838 – a definition of the drama as a poetic story played on the stage.^[4]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[10]
• 1963 – dedramatiza “to play down”.^[5]
• 1975 – dramă-spectacol.^[12]
• 1982 – docudramă.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A serious play of the modern genre that shows real life in its conflicts, often mixing tragic and comic elements, and by extension a serious film: dramă lirică “opera”.^[2][5][1]
2. The dramatic art, acting: clasă de dramă “acting class”.^[2][3]
3. (figurative) A tragic event, a misfortune: dramă pasională “crime of passion”, a face dramă din ceva “to make a drama out of something”.^[2][3]
4. A strong inner conflict that causes suffering.^[2][3]

Word family

• dramatic
• dramatism
• dramatiza
• dramaturg
• dramaturgie
• melodramă

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 330
3. ^ 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, 753
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dramă
5. ^ 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. dramă
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
9. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dramă
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
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 446
12. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE)