geniu

Forms

geniu n (plural genii)^[1] Tiktin quotes Șincai's chronicle with the genitive geniului: „Geniului sau îngerului Dachiilor” “to the genius or angel of the Dacians”.^[2]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing borrowed from Latin genius (“guardian spirit; inborn talent”), which Ciorănescu dates to the 19th century.^[3][1] DEX, MDA2, Tiktin and the DA give borrowed from French génie beside the Latin word, a multiple etymology of the kind usual for Romanian neologisms,^[4][5][2] and the neologism dictionaries compare Italian genio.^[6]

The Latin noun is formed on gignō (“to beget”),^[7] and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget”).^[1] The French word was borrowed from it in 1532.^[8] Graur lists the Romanian word in the family of gen, ginere and gintă, all from the same Latin root.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1799.^[2] His quotation from Șincai's chronicle, „Geniului sau îngerului Dachiilor”, shows the sense “guardian spirit”, here of a whole people.^[2] MDA2 dates the word from the 1878 edition of Bălcescu's history of Michael the Brave.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the word first named the spirit of a family, living in its head and then in each person;^[7] from this came the senses “natural inclination” and “intellectual power”.^[8] Negulici in 1848 gives “great, sublime talent”, “natural disposition”, “inspiration” and the good or bad demon thought to watch over a man's fate.^[10] Costinescu in 1870 adds the genius of a language, its own distinctive character.^[11]

A military sense, the arm that builds fortifications, appears in Barcianu's dictionary of 1886 as trupe de geniu, glossed “Genietruppen, military engineers”.^[12] Șăineanu in 1929 lists seven senses, from the mythological spirit to the art of fortification and the corps that practises it.^[13] DEX today puts the creative gift first and marks the protective spirit as mythological or poetic.^[4]

Timeline

• 1799 – first record.^[2]
• 1848 – Negulici defines it as great talent, inspiration and a guardian demon.^[10]
• 1862 – Pontbriant gives it with a plural in -uri and the French gloss génie.^[14]
• 1870 – Costinescu records the genius of a language.^[11]
• 1878 – MDA2's first record, in Bălcescu's history of Michael the Brave.^[5]
• 1886 – trupe de geniu “engineering troops” in Barcianu.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. genius: the highest degree of creative mental gift, whose works are of great importance; a person who has it.^[4] De geniu means “of genius, brilliant”.^[4][5]
2. The nature or specific character of something: geniul limbii “the genius of the language”.^[4][15]
3. (mythology; now poetic) A guardian spirit; a good or evil spirit.^[4][5]
4. (military) The arm of the army whose troops build fortifications, roads and bridges.^[4][16]

Word family

• genial

Related words

• gen
• Latin genius
• French génie

Usage notes

The plural is genii;^[5][14][17] Pontbriant and Damé give geniuri, which MDA2 marks as old.^[5][14][17] MDA2 and Tiktin also record an old feminine genie.^[5][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. geniu
3. ^ 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. geniu
4. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 433
5. ^ 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, 983
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. geniu
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
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, p. s.v. geniu
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 478
12. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 249
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 271
14. ^ a b c Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 285
15. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. geniu
16. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. geniu
17. ^ a b Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. geniu