fidel

Forms

fidel m or n (feminine singular fidelă, masculine plural fideli, feminine/neuter plural fidele)^[1] Tiktin records an obsolete form fidele.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French fidèle and, as a learned word, borrowed from Latin fidēlis (“faithful, loyal”).^[3][4][5][1] Ciorănescu and the DA give only French, and the DA labels it a Gallicism.^[6][7] Scriban gives only Latin.^[8] Tiktin names Italian fedele and French.^[2] The French adjective is a learned remaking (1533) of Old French fidel, from the Latin word.^[9] The Latin adjective is formed on fidēs (“faith, trust”) with the suffix -ēlis.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from Micu's Loghica of 1781, in the sense “faithful”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The DA, in the 1930s, still called the word rare in the sense “constant in one's feelings”, quoting Eminescu's amicul fidel, and gave a second sense “exact, keeping something unchanged”, from Odobescu, who praised a simple and faithful translation of a Latin text.^[7] Costinescu in 1870 also gave a religious sense, a good Christian, referring to credincios.^[11] Ciorănescu remarked that the word and its derivatives fidelitate, infidel and infidelitate had an air of comic melodrama.^[6] Of married people it means faithful to the spouse.^[4][12]

Timeline

• 1781 – Micu's Loghica, the first record.^[2]
• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary, with the religious sense.^[11]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it with German treu.^[13]
• 1887 – Odobescu's writings, MDA2's first record.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. faithful, constant in one's feelings or convictions; loyal, devoted.^[3][4][1]
2. Of a spouse: faithful, having no relations outside the marriage.^[4][12]
3. Reproducing a model, a rule or a custom exactly; keeping something unchanged: o traducere fidelă.^[3][4]

Adverb

1. Exactly, accurately.^[3][4][7]

Word family

• fidelitate
• infidel

Related words

• Latin fidelis

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. fidél
3. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 391
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 901
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. fidel
6. ^ 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. fidel
7. ^ 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. fidel
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 504
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 435
12. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. fidel
13. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 229