faimos

Forms

faimos m or n (feminine singular faimoasă, masculine plural faimoși, feminine/neuter plural faimoase)^[1] Older texts have famoz and famos, closer to the French and Latin words: Văcărescu writes „Famozul Panaiotache” “the famous Panaiotache”, and Hasdeu still has „Famosul Țepeș” “the famous Țepeș”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French fameux (“famous”), also borrowed from Latin fāmōsus (“much talked of, famous”), remodelled after the Romanian noun faimă (“fame”), which gave the word its diphthong.^[4][5][6] Tiktin calls it a learned remodelling of the Latin adjective, and the DA a French loan altered after the noun.^[3][2] Scriban and Wiktionary describe it as formed on the noun on the model of the Latin and French words.^[7][1]

The French word is itself borrowed from Latin,^[1] and the adjective is formed from Latin fāma + -ōsus.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1793, in Ianache Văcărescul's history of the Ottoman emperors, where the forms are famoz and famos.^[3][5] There it already means “famous, well known”: „Famozul Panaiotache”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word could praise or blame: the DA and Șăineanu define it as famous “in a good or a bad sense”, and Tiktin glosses it both “famous” and “notorious”.^[2][9][3] MDA2 still keeps two senses, one of public acclaim and one of notoriety for qualities, faults or deeds.^[5] Negulici listed it in 1848 among the new words, glossed “renowned, praised by all, illustrious”.^[10]

The 19th-century classics used it of people and of things: Alexandrescu of a commander, Odobescu of Horace's “famous verses”, Maiorescu of a drawn-out inquiry.^[2] Scriban's examples set a famous scholar beside a famous thief.^[7]

Timeline

• 1793 – famoz and famos in Ianache Văcărescul's history of the Ottoman emperors.^[3][2]
• 1848 – faimos in Negulici's dictionary of new words.^[10]
• 1893 – Damé's dictionary gives it with French fameux.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. famous, renowned: widely known and admired by the public; synonyms celebru, renumit, vestit: un pictor faimos “a famous painter”.^[4][5]
2. Widely known for one's faults or misdeeds, notorious.^[5][3]

Related words

• faimă
• Latin fāmōsus
• French fameux

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. faimos
3. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. faimos
4. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 379
5. ^ 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, 873
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc
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. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. faimos