fabulos

Forms

fabulos m or n (feminine singular fabuloasă, masculine plural fabuloși, feminine/neuter plural fabuloase)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French fabuleux and Latin fābulōsus (“celebrated in legend”), a neologism with two models, as DEX and MDA2 give it.^[2][3][4][1] Tiktin names Italian favuloso beside the French word, the DA gives only the French source, and Scriban only the Latin one.^[5][6][7] The Latin adjective is formed from fābula (“story, fable”) with the suffix -ōsus.^[8][9] In Romanian it can be read as fabulă with the suffix -os.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1800, as an adjective “legendary, fabulous”.^[5] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms explained it in 1848 as “invented, not existing”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The early sense was “invented, belonging to fable”: Costinescu in 1870 glossed it with născocit and scornit and mentioned the “fabulous times” of gods and heroes.^[11] Constantin Negruzzi used it of a price, the ten thousand ducats paid for a tulip bulb at Haarlem, which is the sense of wealth and money that now leads the dictionaries.^[6][12] The sense “legendary, mythical”, as in Alexandrescu's “fabulous ages”, is marked by the DLRLC as an old Gallicism.^[12] As a neuter noun, fabulosul, it names the fabulous as a quality.^[6][2]

Timeline

• 1800 – the first record Tiktin gives.^[5]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[10]
• 1870 – “invented; exaggerated” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[11]
• 1872 – prețul fabulos “the fabulous price” in Negruzzi's collected works, the first record MDA2 gives.^[3][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of sums of money, prices, fortunes) beyond all imagining; enormous, extraordinary.^[2][3]
2. Belonging to the world of fables, legends and myths; fantastic, wonderful.^[2]
3. (often as a neuter noun) imaginary, unreal.^[2][3]

Related words

• fabulă
• French fabuleux
• Latin fābulōsus

Usage notes

It is also used as an adverb, fabulos de bogat “fabulously rich”.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 377
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 869
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. fabulos
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. fabulos
6. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. fabulos
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 488
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
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, p. s.v. fabulos
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 415
12. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 247