lăudător

Forms

lăudător m (plural lăudători, feminine equivalent lăudătoare)^[1] The old form is lăudătoriu: Maior's sermons say true humility, as it has only God for its judge, „așa numai pre Dumnezeu vrea să aibă lăudătoriu” “so it wants only God as the one who praises it”.^[2][3]

Etymology

The Academy dictionaries and Tiktin take it as formed from Romanian lăuda (“to praise”) + -ător.^[4][2][5] Ciorănescu instead derives it from Late Latin laudātōrius (“laudatory”), after the REW, and Wiktionary takes the noun from Latin laudātor (“one who praises”) and the adjective from the Late Latin word.^[3][1] The REW lists the Romanian word under the Latin noun, beside Italian lodatore, French loueur, Occitan lauzador, Spanish loador and Portuguese louvador.^[6] DEX gives both views.^[7] The two explanations differ: on the first the word is a Romanian agent noun of lăuda, on the second a Latin word kept in Romanian.^[7][3] The Latin noun is formed on laudō (“to praise”).^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1635, in a text he cites as Eftimie's, as an adjective “praising” and a noun “one who praises”.^[5] MDA2's first record is Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686), where it is used of those who glorify God.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The old religious sense is one who glorifies God or the saints; a Mineiu of 1776 has the adjective in „gură lăudătoare” “a praising mouth”.^[2][4] It also meant an admirer, one who speaks well of someone, a flatterer, and rarely a boaster.^[4] The adjective “laudatory” stayed in use, as in epitete lăudătoare in Iorga.^[2] The modern noun is simply a person who praises, mostly in an ironic phrase about self-praise.^[7][9]

Timeline

• c. 1635 – in a text Tiktin cites as Eftimie's, the first record.^[5]
• 1682–1686 – lăudători “those who glorify” in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[4][2]
• 1776 – the adjective lăudătoare in a Mineiu.^[2]
• 1818 – in Budai-Deleanu's lexicon.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who praises; a praiser, eulogist.^[7][1]
2. (obsolete, religious) One who glorifies God; închinător.^[4][2]
3. (obsolete) An admirer; also a flatterer.^[4]

Adjective

1. laudatory, full of praise.^[2][1]

Related words

• lăuda
• laudă
• lăudăros

Usage notes

A-i fi murit cuiva lăudătorii “someone's praisers have died” is said ironically of a person who praises himself.^[7][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lăudător
3. ^ a b c 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. lăuda
4. ^ 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, 1330
5. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. lăudătór
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4939
7. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 582
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 735