judecător

Forms

judecător m (plural judecători)^[1] Old texts have judecătoriu, and a regional form is giudecător.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian judeca + -ător, the verb with the agent suffix.^[3][2][4][5] The verb judeca is from Latin iūdicō (“to judge”).^[4]

Candrea and Densusianu derived the noun directly from Latin iūdicātōrius, as Papahagi and Pascu do for Aromanian giudicãtor.^[6][7][8] Wiktionary notes that it may correspond to Late Latin iūdicātor.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578), and Tiktin quotes it from Psalm 7:12.^[2][5] The psalter writes giudecătoriu, and Coresi's psalter of 1577 has judecătoriu in the same verse, where God is the judge.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a judge in the biblical sense, God or a judge of Israel: the Bible of 1688 speaks of „zilele judecătorilor carii judeca pre Israil” “the days of the judges who judged Israel”.^[5] The book of Judges is Cartea Judecătorilor, and old texts called God Dreptul Judecător “the righteous Judge”.^[2] In modern usage it is the official who decides cases in court, with titles such as judecător de pace “justice of the peace” and judecător de instrucție “examining magistrate”.^[2][10] A newer title is judecător sindic, the judge who oversees an insolvency, recorded in the press from 1998 and compared with French juge-syndic.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – giudecătoriu in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2][9]
• 1577 – judecătoriu in Coresi's psalter.^[9]
• 1660 – in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, rendering Slavonic words for “judge” and “governor”.^[12]
• 1688 – judecătorilor “of the judges” in the Bucharest Bible.^[5]
• 1998 – judecător sindic in the press.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A judge: a state official, appointed or elected, who settles cases in court by passing judgment.^[3][1]
2. A person asked to give an opinion on a question to establish the truth; an arbitrator.^[3][1]
3. (sport) A referee; arbitru.^[3]
4. (biblical) One of the judges of Israel, the leaders between the death of Moses and the reign of Saul.^[2]

Word family

• judecătoresc
• judecătoreasă
• judecătoraș

Related words

• jude
• judecată
• judecătorie
• Aromanian giudicãtor

Usage notes

The feminine is judecătoare; the older judecătoreasă meant a judge's wife.^[3][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1290
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 568
4. ^ a b 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. judeca
5. ^ 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. judecător
6. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. judecător
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 536
8. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 93
9. ^ a b c 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 7:12
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 718
11. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. judecător
12. ^ 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. judecător