faimă

Forms

faimă f (plural faime)^[1]

Etymology

Ciorănescu takes it as borrowed from Latin fāma (“talk, report, reputation”), a learned word of the 19th century shaped on the older verb defăima “to defame”, and doubts a direct inheritance.^[2] The DA also calls it a learned formation, because the word is missing from the old literature as well as from reliable folk texts.^[3] DEX, MDA2 and Marcu & Maneca give the Latin word with the same influence of the verb.^[4][5][6] Tiktin calls it a learned remodelling of the Latin word after that verb, but adds that his first record, from the 16th century, supports the REW's view of an inherited word.^[7] The REW explains the ⟨i⟩ by the influence of īnfāmia.^[8] Wiktionary, too, treats it as inherited.^[1]

The Latin noun is from Proto-Italic *fāmā, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to speak”), and is related to Ancient Greek φήμη (phḗmē, “talk”).^[1][9] Graur lists it with fabulă, fatal and infamie among the Romanian descendants of the Latin verb for (“to speak”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Gospel translation of 1551–1553, at Matthew 26:65.^[7] The DA quotes the word only from 19th-century writers, with the senses “news spread among people” and “renown”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense in the DA is a piece of news that spreads among people: se lățește or se împrăștie faima “the news spreads”.^[3] From this came “renown, a glorious name, reputation”, now the main sense; the sense “news, rumour” is rare today.^[3][4]

In the 19th century writers also used the Latinism famă, often for Fame personified: Marcovici in 1835, Pann and Negruzzi.^[3] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 lists famă and faimă side by side with the sense “renown, great name”.^[11] MDA2 records famă as an old variant.^[5]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – the first record, in a Gospel translation (Matthew 26:65).^[7]
• 1835 – fama in Simeon Marcovici's translation of Young's Night Thoughts.^[3][5]
• 1848 – famă and faimă in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. fame, renown: the good or bad reputation someone or something has: Faima satului venea de la meșterii lui.^[4][12]
2. (rare) Unexpected or surprising news; a rumour.^[4][5]

Word family

• faimos

Related words

• defăima
• Latin fāma

Usage notes

The derived adjective faimos means “famous”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. faimă
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. faimă
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 379
5. ^ 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, 873
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. faimă
7. ^ 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. faimă
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 39
11. ^ 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. famă
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. faimă