gigant

Forms

gigant m (plural giganți)^[1] The older form ghigant (also ghigand) is in a Menaion of 1698, and the 1776 Menaion compares a man to one: „Om mare ca un ghigant” “a man as big as a giant”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It came twice.^[4] The older form ghigant, current before the 19th century, is borrowed from Ancient Greek γίγας (gígas, “giant”), from Greek, Ciorănescu says; the modern form of the 19th century is from Italian gigante.^[4][2] DEX gives Italian and Latin gigās, with German Gigant for comparison, and MDA2 Latin, Greek and Italian.^[5][6] The DA, DLRM and NODEX derive it from Latin alone.^[3][7][8] Latin took the word from Greek, where its origin is uncertain, perhaps Pre-Greek.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Dosoftei's Parimiile of 1683.^[2] MDA2 quotes the form ghigant from the Menaion of 1776.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is a being of huge size, from the Giants of Greek myth who rose against Zeus.^[6][9] Romantic poets used it freely: Eminescu has o strajă de giganți “a guard of giants” of oak trees.^[3] From the person it passed to huge buildings, machines and enterprises, and figuratively to people of exceptional gifts.^[5][6] Recent compounds such as petrolier-gigant use it as an adjective, “giant”.^[10] In astronomy it names a star of great luminosity.^[9] The adjective gigantic was formed from it.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1683 – in Dosoftei's Parimiile, the first record.^[2]
• 1698 – ghigant in a Menaion.^[2]
• 1776 – ghigant in the Menaion.^[6][3]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (often as an adjective) A giant: a real or legendary being of huge size; an uriaș.^[5][6][1]
2. A huge building, enterprise or machine.^[5][6]
3. (figurative) A person of exceptional gifts.^[5][6]
4. (mythology) One of the Giants who rebelled against Zeus.^[6][9]

Word family

• gigantic

Related words

• uriaș
• Latin gigās

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. gigant
3. ^ a b c d e 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. gigant
4. ^ a b c 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. gigant
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 439
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 997
7. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. gigant
8. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. gigant
9. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. gigant
10. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. gigant
11. ^ 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. 188