istorie

Forms

istorie f (plural istorii)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word of the 17th century, borrowed from Latin historia, with Ancient Greek ἱστορία (historía) as a possible second source: Ciorănescu, Tiktin, the DA and Wiktionary leave both open, while MDA2 names Latin alone and DEX gives Latin and Italian istoria, comparing French histoire.^{[2][3][4][1][5][6]} Latin took the word from Greek.^[7] The Greek noun comes from ἱστορέω (historéō, “to inquire”), from ἵστωρ (hístōr, “one who knows, a judge”).^[1]

The word also lives in Aromanian as isturie.^[2][8] The old stress on the ⟨i⟩ of the third syllable survives only in the colloquial senses “trouble, mess” and “private parts”.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Varlaam's Cazania of 1643, with the sense “story, account”.^[3][5] Mardarie's lexicon of 1649 uses istoria to render Slavonic повѣсть “tale”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the word meant first a story or a narrative of events worth remembering, and the DA notes that it was often used in the plural, as Latin historiae was.^[4][3] The sense of the science of the past and of a written history grew out of it; titles such as Istoria Rosilor (a manuscript of about 1750) belong here.^[3][6]

The everyday senses “incident, mishap” and “prank, mess” are colloquial;^[9] Ciorănescu and the DA also record a euphemistic use for the genitals.^[6][2][4] Ciorănescu dates the derivative istoricesc “historical” and the noun istoric “historian” to the 17th century and istornic and istoriograf to the 18th.^[2]

Timeline

• 1643 – “story, account” in Varlaam's Cazania, the first record.^[3][5]
• 1649 – istoria in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 17th century – the derivative istoricesc and the noun istoric “historian”.^[2]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible.^[10]
• 18th century – istoriograf “chronicler, historian”, from Greek.^[2]
• c. 1750 – Istoria Rosilor, a manuscript title.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The process of development of nature and society.^[6]
2. history: the science that studies the past of humankind; a written history: istoria românilor.^[6][5]
3. The history of a particular field: istoria limbii “the history of the language”; a work on it.^[6]
4. A story, a narrative.^[6][1]
5. (colloquial) An incident, a mishap; a prank, a mess: Ce istorie a mai fost și asta!^[6][2]

Word family

• istorioară
• istorisi

Related words

• istoric
• istoriograf
• istoriografie
• preistorie
• Aromanian isturie
• Latin historia

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. istorie
3. ^ 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. istorie
4. ^ 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. istorie
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1169
6. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 526
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 566
9. ^ a b c Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. istoria
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 2 Maccabees 2:33