gardian

Forms

gardian m (plural gardieni)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French gardien.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of gardă, also from French, but as a separate loan.^[5] Scriban adds that the French word also passed into Turkish and gave the Romanian variant vardian.^[6]

The French word continues Old French guardian, guardein (“protector, guard”), formed on guarder (“to guard”) with a suffix that was later changed, possibly under the influence of Medieval Latin guardianus.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a document of 1735 published by Iorga.^[4] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 glosses it “keeper, protector”, with înger gardian “guardian angel” and gardian național “national guard”, after French usage.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the general sense of a keeper or protector the word narrowed to a man who guards a building or institution, and Șăineanu in 1929 defines it as a night watchman.^[7][8] In the police of the old kingdom a gardian public patrolled the streets;^[3][6] Scriban notes that before 1918 such a man was more often called gardist or sergent de oraș.^[3][6] The word was also used for attendants in shops and hospitals, especially in psychiatric wards, and Scriban records a feminine gardiancă “hospital nurse”.^[3][6] Today it is above all a guard or warder of a building, an institution or a prison.^[2]

Timeline

• 1735 – a document published by Iorga, the first record.^[4]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses it “keeper”, with înger gardian “guardian angel”.^[7]
• 1893 – listed in Damé's dictionary with the plural gardieni.^[9]
• 1929 – Șăineanu defines it as a night watchman.^[8]
• 1939 – Scriban's “public guard of the streets”.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A guard or warden: a person charged with guarding or supervising a building, an institution or a town; paznic.^[2][3][1]
2. (historical) A policeman of the old police; gardist;^[3][6] gardian public “street patrolman”.^[3][6]
3. An attendant who supervises a shop or a hospital ward, especially in a psychiatric hospital.^[3]

Related words

• gardă
• gardist

Usage notes

The word is pronounced in three syllables, -di-an, and the plural is gardieni.^[2] Prison slang has many words for a warder, among them gabor and cuc.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 426
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 964
4. ^ 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. gardian
5. ^ 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. gardă
6. ^ a b c d e f g Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 541
7. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 471
8. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 268
9. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. gardian
10. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. gardian