imbecil

Forms

imbecil m or n (feminine singular imbecilă, masculine plural imbecili, feminine/neuter plural imbecile)^[1]

Etymology

It is a 19th-century neologism, borrowed from French imbécile, with borrowed from Latin imbēcillus (“weak, feeble”) as a second source.^[2][3][4][1] DN names Italian imbecille as well, and the DA calls the word a neologism after French.^[5][6] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 gave the Latin variant imbecillis beside it.^[7] The French adjective is itself a learned borrowing of the Latin one, made in 1495–1496.^[8][1]

In Latin the word meant “physically weak, feeble”, of the body and of the mind.^[9][10] An ancient scholium on Juvenal explained it as “as if without a stick”, from baculum (“stick”), and that is the explanation usually repeated, by Scriban and Graur among others.^[11][12][13] De Vaan rejects it: the long ē that Lucretius and Horace scan does not fit, and he finds the word without an etymology.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms of 1848, in the transitional alphabet, glossed with becisnic, prost and nerod “feeble, stupid, foolish” and “incapable of anything”.^[7] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 gives the same sense, “feeble, weak of mind, stupid, idiotic”.^[14]

Semantic evolution

French had first used the word, like Latin, for physical weakness, and moved to “lacking intelligence” in the 16th century.^[8] Romanian took only the later sense.^[7][14] Scriban still defined it as “weak, wretched, stupid”.^[12]

The DA marked the word as rare and quoted it from Sadoveanu's Povestiri de seară (1910), already as a noun of abuse: „Eşti un imbecil!” “You are an imbecile!”.^[6][3] The DLRLC notes that it is often an insult, and DILF that it is often used in exaggeration rather than of a real condition.^[15][16] The abstract noun imbecilitate appears in the legal language, in Hamangiu's edition of the Civil Code, for a state of mental weakness that justifies placing an adult under guardianship.^[6]

Timeline

• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms, the first record.^[7]
• 1870 – in Costinescu's dictionary.^[14]
• 1893–1895 – in Damé's French–Romanian dictionary, as the equivalent of French imbécile.^[17]
• 1910 – the noun in Sadoveanu's Povestiri de seară, MDA2's first record.^[3][6]
• 1929 – Șăineanu defines it as weak of mind and as one who speaks or acts foolishly.^[18]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person: with very reduced mental capacities; stupid, feeble-minded.^[2][3] Also as a noun, often as a term of abuse: Nu fi imbecil! “Don't be an idiot!”^[2][3][15]
2. Showing imbecilitate: un zâmbet imbecil “an idiotic smile”.^[2][3]

Related words

• imbecilitate
• French imbécile
• Latin imbēcillus

Usage notes

The adverbial use (a lupta imbecil) is rare.^[15]

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. 491
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, 1115
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. imbecil
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. imbecil
6. ^ a b c d 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. imbecil
7. ^ a b c d 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. imbecil
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 622
13. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
14. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 528
15. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 494
16. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria
17. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. imbecil
18. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 305