iubitor

Forms

iubitor m or n (feminine singular iubitoare, masculine plural iubitori, feminine/neuter plural iubitoare)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian iubi (“to love”) + -tor, the agent suffix that makes nouns and adjectives from verbs.^[2][3][4][1] The verb iubi is from Old Church Slavonic любити (ljubiti, “to love”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The plural iubitorii “those who love” occurs twice in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century (Psalms 39:22 and 96:11 in the index's numbering).^[5] Tiktin quotes frații-iubitori “loving the brethren” from the Codicele Voronețean (1 Peter 3:8), and MDA2's first record is Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word served both as an adjective, “loving”, and as a noun, “one who loves”.^[3][4] In the old religious language it was the usual rendering of Slavonic compounds in -ljubecŭ and of ljubomudrŭ: the 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss such words with iubitor, iubitor de înțelepciune “lover of wisdom” and the like.^[6] Such phrases gave the word its later range: iubitor de oameni “philanthropist” (now obsolete), iubitor de argint “greedy for money”, iubitor de pace “peace-loving”.^[3][7][8] Damé in 1893 glosses it with French amateur as well as aimant, the sense “enthusiast, fan of something” that it has today beside “affectionate”.^[9][1]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – iubitorii in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[5]
• c. 1563-1583 – frații-iubitori in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Carte de învățătură, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1660 – the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons start glossing Slavonic compounds with iubitor.^[6]
• 1688 – iubitori and iubitoare are frequent in the Bucharest Bible (Luke 16:14).^[10]
• 1886 – Barcianu records iubitor de oameni and iubitor de sine.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. loving, affectionate: who loves, inclined to love; full of love.^[2][3][1]
2. Fond of something: iubitor de natură “nature-loving”.^[2][3]

Noun

1. A lover, one who loves; an enthusiast or amateur of something: un iubitor de muzică veche.^[3][1]
2. (obsolete) iubitor de oameni: a philanthropist.^[3]

Related words

• iubi
• iubire
• iubit
• Old Church Slavonic любити (ljubiti)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 527
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1171
4. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. iubitor
5. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 39:22
6. ^ a b 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. iubitor
7. ^ 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. 289
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. iubitor
9. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. iubitor
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Luke 16:14