dreptate

Forms

dreptate f (plural dreptăți)^[1] The old texts write dereptate and direptate; the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has „Judeca-va lumea cu direptate și noroadele cu adevărul lui” “he shall judge the world with justice and the peoples with his truth” (Psalm 95:13).^[2][3] Coresi's Gospel homilies have „De nu va fi mai multă dereptatea voastră, mai vârtos de a cărtularilor și a fariseilor” “unless your righteousness is greater than that of the scribes and the Pharisees”.^[4]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian drept + -ătate.^[5][3][4][6] Ciorănescu compares bunătate from bun, with an older ⟨-ăate⟩ reduced to ⟨-ate⟩.^[6] Pușcariu had derived it from Vulgar Latin *direc(ti)tatem, which Ciorănescu thinks impossible and Wiktionary unlikely.^[6][1] The adjective drept “straight; just” continues from Vulgar Latin *dērēctus, a variant of Latin dīrēctus.^[6][7]

The noun has counterparts south of the Danube: Aromanian ndriptati (also driptate) and Megleno-Romanian direptati.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is dereptate in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century (Psalm 9:4), in the sense “justice, righteousness”.^[7][9] The form recurs in all the 16th-century psalters and in the Codicele Voronețean.^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the word names the virtue of the just man, righteousness, beside the principle that everyone should get his due.^[4][7] Coresi's psalters perhaps coined the synonym derepție to render two Greek abstracts side by side, “judge the world in justice and the people in uprightness”.^[7] Older meanings were “justice” as an authority, a court or judgement, “law” and a legal right; in the plural dreptăți meant one's rights.^[7][2] The Lexicon of Buda (1825) also gives “truth” and “fidelity”, as in șerbu cu dreptate “a faithful servant”.^[10] The sense “correctness of an opinion” gave the common phrases a avea dreptate “to be right” and a da dreptate “to agree that someone is right”.^[7][5]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – dereptate “justice” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[7][9]
• c. 1563-1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]
• 1570 – derepție, a synonym used only in Coresi's psalters.^[7]
• 1589 – the modern form dreptate in Coresi's psalter (Psalm 7:15).^[11]
• 1688 – direptate, 175 times in the Bucharest Bible.^[12]
• 1846 – the verb dreptăți “to authorise; to treat someone justly”.^[7]
• 1849 – dreptăție, a regional synonym.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. justice: the moral and legal principle that everyone must receive what is due to them and have their rights respected; fairness, equity.^[5][3][1]
2. The quality of being right or correct, in a avea dreptate “to be right”: Ai dreptate, așa e.^[5][13][1]
3. (popular) A judgement, a trial.^[5]
4. (in the plural) Rights recognised by law.^[14]

Word family

• nedreptate
• dreptăți
• îndreptăți
• dreptăție

Related words

• drept
• îndrepta
• Aromanian ndriptati

Usage notes

Fixed phrases: cu dreptate or după dreptate “justly, lawfully”, pe bună dreptate “rightly, with good reason”, a face cuiva dreptate “to right a wrong done to someone”, a da cuiva dreptate “to agree that someone is right”.^[5][3] The plural dreptăți is rare.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dreptáte
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 759
4. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dreptate
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 332
6. ^ a b c d 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. drept
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. drept
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 718
9. ^ a b c 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 9:4
10. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 197
11. ^ 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 7:15
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Genesis 15:6
13. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 448
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. dreptate
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan” (1998), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, 2nd ed., București: Univers Enciclopedic, p. 320