episcop

Forms

episcop m (plural episcopi)^[1] Old texts have episcup and piscup: the Cuvente den bătrâni (c. 1580) write „Și giudecii și episcupii și patriarșii și împărații” “and the judges and the bishops and the patriarchs and the emperors”.^[2][3] DELR lists the regional variants episcóp, ipiscop, ipiscup, piscop, piscup and prișcop.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic епископъ (episkopŭ), with Byzantine Greek ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos) as a second source.^[4][5] MDA2 adds Latin episcopus, and DEX gives the Modern Greek and the Latin word.^[3][6] Ciorănescu takes it from Modern Greek επίσκοπος (epískopos), after Murnu.^[7] The popular forms piscop and piscup come from the Slavonic variant пискѹпъ (piskupŭ), perhaps also from a Byzantine πίσκοπος (pískopos).^[4] The Slavonic word is itself from Greek.^[8]

The Greek word meant “overseer, guardian” and is formed from Ancient Greek ἐπι- (epi-) + σκοπός (skopós, “watcher”).^[1][9] The word is found south of the Danube too: Aromanian episcop and ipiscup.^[10][11] The western Romance words inherited from the Latin one differ in shape: Italian vescovo, French évêque, Spanish obispo and Portuguese bispo.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and DELR date the first record to 1464, the form píscop in a Slavonic charter of the Romanian lands.^[4][5] DELR's first Romanian text is of 1559–1560, and the DLR quotes a book printed in 1560 „cu știrea episcopului Savei” “with the knowledge of Bishop Sava”.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Greek ἐπίσκοπος was a watcher or guardian in Homer and an inspector in Aristophanes; in the New Testament it named a Christian church elder, and later the third rank of the priesthood.^[9] Old Romanian also had the general sense “inspector of a district, town or province”.^[2][3] The word for the church dignitary competed with the popular vlădică and the regional vlădilă and pișpec.^[2] Constantinescu explains the name Pișcop by the Hungarian sounds of püspök.^[13]

The word also left place and family names, such as Piscupești and Scopescu.^[13]

Timeline

• 1464 – píscop in a Slavonic charter, the first record.^[4][5]
• 1559–1560 – first in a Romanian text.^[4]
• 1567–1568 – arhiepiscop “archbishop” in Coresi.^[4]
• c. 1580 – episcupii “the bishops” in the Cuvente den bătrâni.^[3][2]
• 1688 – episcopul in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]
• 1839 – arhiepiscopal “archiepiscopal”, from French and Latin.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bishop: a high rank in the Christian church, below metropolitan and archbishop; a person of this rank, who usually heads an eparchy.^[6][15]
2. (obsolete) An inspector of a district, town or province.^[3][2]

Word family

• arhiepiscop
• arhiepiscopal
• arhiepiscopat
• arhiepiscopie
• episcopal
• episcopat
• episcopeasă
• episcopesc
• episcopie

Related words

• vlădică
• Aromanian ipiscup
• Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos)

Usage notes

A separate neuter noun episcop (DEX's episcop², plural episcoape), stressed on the last syllable, names an optical episcope, a projector for opaque pictures, and a mirror device for observation from a tank.^[6][16] It is borrowed from German Episkop and French épiscope, a term coined in 1890, and DELR records it from 1950.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. episcop
3. ^ 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, 820
4. ^ 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. episcop
5. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. episcop
6. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 357
7. ^ 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. episcop
8. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
9. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
11. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Titus 1:7
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional
16. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România