faptă

Forms

faptă f (plural fapte)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin facta (“deeds, things done”), the neuter plural of factum (“deed”), taken as a feminine singular.^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu reads the word differently: he lists it among the derivatives of fapt, with the singular rebuilt from the plural ⟨fapte⟩; he names Tiktin and the DA as the source of the derivation from Latin.^[5] Aromanian faptã has the same origin.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The plural faptele appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century (Psalms 13:2 and 142:5), in the sense “deeds, works”.^[6][7] MDA2 dates the word to the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), and Tiktin cites the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In the old religious language the word also meant a work or creature: the 1688 Bible asks whether the thing made shall say of its maker that he made it without understanding.^[4][3] Faptele Apostolilor is the Romanian title of the Acts of the Apostles.^[4]

The modern sense is an action someone has done, good or bad: faptă bună “good deed”, faptă rea “misdeed”.^[2][3] Proverbs set deeds against words, as in nu e nicio faptă fără plată “no deed goes unrewarded”.^[8][4]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – faptele in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[6]
• c. 1563-1583 – the Codicele Voronețean, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1660 – the lexicon Lex.St. uses fapte to gloss Slavonic words for deeds.^[9]
• 1688 – faptă “work, creature” in the Bucharest Bible.^[4]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary has fapta, with Latin opus and actus.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A deed, an action someone has done.^[2][1]
2. fapte de arme: feats of arms, acts of military heroism.^[2][1]
3. în faptă (obsolete): in reality, in fact.^[2]
4. (obsolete, religious) A creature, a work of creation.^[3][4]

Word family

• făptaș
• făptui
• făptuitor
• făptură

Related words

• fapt
• face
• Aromanian faptã

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. 381
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 876
4. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. faptă
5. ^ 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. fapt
6. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 13:2
7. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 142:5
8. ^ 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. faptă
9. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. fapte
10. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 358