familie

Forms

familie f (plural familii)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin familia (“household, family”), taken with Italian famiglia and French famille as models.^[2][3][4][1] The dictionaries weigh the models differently: MDA2 and DEX name Latin and Italian, with some senses after French.^[3][2] DER and the DA take the Latin word through French.^[5][6] Wiktionary traces the Latin word to Proto-Italic and takes famulus (“servant”) as a back-formation from it.^[1]

The word is Aromanian fumeal'e, directly from Latin, and also a form familie from Italian.^[5][7][8] The same Latin word survives in Romanian as the inherited doublet femeie “woman”.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1696, in a document published by Iorga.^[7] He quotes Cantemir's Divan: „Noe, dreptul, și cu familia lui” “Noah the righteous, with his family”.^[7] MDA2's first record is the Pravila in its 1814 edition.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the household: those joined by blood or marriage, and specifically husband, wife and children.^[6][3] From it came “lineage, all those who descend from one ancestor”, and the dynasty or noble house.^[3][9] The scientific senses came with the 19th-century neologisms: Scriban lists the family of languages, of words and of animals or plants.^[10] The legal consiliu de familie “family council” is in the DA.^[6]

DER records some derivatives formed in Greek in the 18th century: familiarh “head of a family” and familiot “family man”, after Gáldi.^[5] Caragiale made familist “family man” popular.^[5]

Timeline

• 1696 – first record, in a document published by Iorga.^[7]
• 18th century – familiarh and familiot, from Greek.^[5]
• 1814 – in the edition of the Pravila that MDA2 cites as its first record.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A family: the basic social unit of a married couple and their children;^[2][3][1] aer de familie “family likeness”;^[2][3][1] nume de familie “surname”.^[2][3][1]
2. All the people who descend from a common ancestor; lineage, kin;^[2] familie de albine “the bees of one hive”.^[2]
3. (figurative) A large group of people or peoples with shared interests and ideals.^[2]
4. (biology) A taxonomic rank below the order, made up of several genera.^[2]
5. (linguistics) A group of words formed from the same base; a group of languages that come from a common parent language.^[2]

Word family

• familial
• familiar
• familiaritate
• familiariza
• familist

Related words

• femeie
• Latin familia

Usage notes

The plural is familii.^[2] The colloquial form famelie Tiktin and Scriban record;^[7][10] Scriban traces it to Modern Greek.^[7][10] Băiat de familie is a young man of a good family.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 380
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 874
4. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. familie
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. familie
6. ^ a b c 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. familie
7. ^ 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. familie
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 477
9. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. familie
10. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 491