judecată

Forms

judecată f (plural judecăți)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin iūdicāta, the plural of iūdicātum (“a thing judged, a judgement”) taken as a feminine singular.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin noun comes from the verb iūdicō (“to judge”).^[1] Wiktionary and Ciorănescu also allow a Latin phrase rēs iūdicāta (“a matter judged”) behind it.^[1][6] Ciorănescu himself lists the noun among the derivatives of the inherited verb judeca.^[6]

South of the Danube it survives as Aromanian giudicatã.^[7][8] Albanian gjykatë “court” is either a loan from the Latin word or a native formation on gjykoj (“to judge”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is giudecată in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, at Psalm 71:2 and Psalm 100:1, where it renders “judgement”.^[9] Tiktin cites the Psaltirea Scheiană, and MDA2 Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581, which has the verse „Cu ce judecată veți judeca, cu aceaia judecați fi-veți” “with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged”.^[5][3][4]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the word belonged to the law and the church: a sentence or verdict, by extension a condemnation, a court's jurisdiction, and a trial or lawsuit.^[4][3] The Bible of 1688 has „judecata a lui Dumnezeu este” “the judgement is God's”, and judecata de apoi is the Last Judgement.^[5] A proverb recorded by Zanne weighs the courts against a settlement: „Mai bine o împăcare strâmbă decât o judecată dreaptă” “better a crooked settlement than a just trial”.^[4]

The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 already adds “opinion”, Latin sententia, opinio, to the legal senses.^[10] Costinescu gave “mind, good sense” in 1870, and this sense of reason and discernment is the first one in DEX today.^[11][2] Logic uses the word for a judgement in the technical sense, a proposition that affirms or denies something.^[2]

Timeline

• early 16th century – giudecată in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[9]
• 1581 – judecată in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[3][4]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible, at Deuteronomy 1:17.^[5]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda gives “sentence”, “tribunal”, “lawsuit” and “opinion”.^[10]
• 1870 – “mind, good sense” in Costinescu.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The faculty of thinking logically; reason, judgement: om cu judecată “a sensible man”.^[2][1]
2. An opinion, a view.^[2]
3. (logic) A proposition that affirms or denies something.^[2]
4. The act of judging; a court hearing, a trial; the decision given in a dispute: a da pe cineva în judecată “to sue someone”.^[2][3][1]
5. Judecata de Apoi: the Last Judgement.^[2][5]

Related words

• judeca
• judecător
• Aromanian giudicatã
• Latin iūdicō

Usage notes

The plural is judecăți; the old language also had judecate.^[3][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 568
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, 1290
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. judecată
5. ^ 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. judecată
6. ^ 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
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. 1, 93
9. ^ 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 71:2
10. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 337
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 5