jurat

Forms

jurat m (plural jurați)^[1] As an adjective: jurat m, jurată f, plural jurați m, jurate f.^[2] Regional forms with /dʒ/ occur: a document of 1690 has „giuratul orașului de sus” “the juror of the upper town”.^[3][4]

Etymology

The adjective is the past participle from Romanian jura (“to swear”).^[2][1] The verb is inherited from iūrō.^[5]

The noun is listed by Ciorănescu among the derivatives of jura.^[5] DA takes the older noun, the Transylvanian “councillor”, from the Latin participle used as a noun, and the sense “juror” from French.^[3] DEX, MDN and MDA2 give the noun “juror” as borrowed from French juré, with iūrātus as a second source.^[2][6][4] Wiktionary calls the noun a past participle partly modelled on French.^[1] Compare Aromanian giurat.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a personal name, Giuratul, in a Moldavian charter of 1469, also listed in the dictionary of personal names.^[7][8] MDA2 dates the adjective “sworn” from Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686), and an old neuter noun “oath” from the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[4] Coresi's Psalter already has juratul “the oath” at Psalm 104:9 in 1570.^[9]

Semantic evolution

As a noun for a person, the word first meant a sworn member of a local council in Transylvania, recorded from 1690, then the village judge who with the mayor formed the communal court, and a member of a church committee.^[3][4] In Maramureș it meant a subprefect, and regionally a border guard or watchman.^[4] The modern sense “juror”, a citizen chosen to sit in judgment on criminal cases, came with the French model of the curte cu jurați “jury court”.^[3][2]

The adjective means “sworn, confirmed by oath”, as in frați jurați “sworn brothers” and dușman jurat “sworn enemy”.^[7][10] In folk speech it came to mean “cursed, damned”: a corpse found undecayed was said to be jurat.^[7][11]

Timeline

• 1469 – Giuratul, a personal name in a Moldavian charter.^[7][8]
• 1570 – juratul “the oath” in Coresi's Psalter, Psalm 104:9.^[9]
• 1682–1686 – the adjective “sworn” in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[4]
• 1690 – giuratul “the councillor” in a Transylvanian document.^[3][4]
• 1765 – juratul bisearicii “the church councillor”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A juror: a citizen chosen to take part in judging criminal and sometimes civil cases, curte cu jurați “jury court”.^[2][1]
2. (historical, Transylvania) A councillor of a commune; a village judge; a member of a church committee.^[4][3]
3. (obsolete) An oath; swearing.^[4]

Adjective

1. Sworn, confirmed or bound by oath: traducător jurat “sworn translator”.^[4][10]
2. (popular, often as a noun) Cursed, damned; wicked.^[2][4]

Related words

• jura
• jurământ
• juriu
• înjura
• Aromanian giurat
• Latin iūrātus
• French juré

Usage notes

DEX treats the noun “juror” (jurat¹, from French and Latin) and the popular adjective “cursed” (jurat², from jura) as separate headwords; both go back to the participle of the same verb, and they are given here together.^[2] Scriban objected to curte cu jurați as a mistaken phrase and preferred curtea juraților.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 569
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. jurat
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1295
5. ^ 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. jura
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. jurat
7. ^ 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. jurat
8. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. jurat
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 104:9
10. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 721
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. jurat