libertate

Forms

libertate f (plural libertăți)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from French liberté, and directly borrowed from Latin lībertās (“freedom”): DEX 2009, MDA2, Tiktin, the DLR and Wiktionary name both sources.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Marcu & Maneca give Latin with French as a parallel, while Marcu and NODEX put French first.^[6][7][8] Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of liber that were all taken from French, beside liberal and liberator.^[9] Scriban gives only the Latin word.^[10] The rare old variant liberta comes from Italian libertà.^[5]

The Latin noun is formed on līber (“free”) with the suffix -tās, and goes back to Old Latin loebertās.^[1][11] The French word was inherited from Old French liberté, itself borrowed from Latin.^[1] Gáldi's 1943 study of the coinages of the Transylvanian School discusses the word.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DLR's first quotation, from the Calendariu of 1794, uses it in the sense “freedom to act as one wishes”: „libertatea de care el se bucurase în casa profesorului său” “the freedom he had enjoyed in his teacher's house”.^[5][3] In a text of Maior's quoted next in the DLR, the new word is explained in brackets by the older volnicie: „cu toată libertatea (volniciia)”.^[5] Tiktin's first record is in Șincai's chronicle, about 1812.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word spread in the first half of the 19th century: Negulici's dictionary of neologisms of 1848 explains it as the power to act or not to act, and independence from another's will.^[13] The political senses followed: the condition of a free person as opposed to a slave or a prisoner, the independence of a state, and in the plural the civil rights of citizens, such as freedom of the press.^[10][2] Barcianu's dictionary of 1886 already has the freedom of conscience, of thought, of worship and of the press.^[14]

A sense “too familiar manner” comes from the phrase a-și lua libertatea “to take the liberty”.^[10][8] In popular speech the DLR records the sense “revolution”, in recollections of the year '48: „când a fos libertatea” “when the liberty was”, with the folk form libărtație.^[5] Chemistry uses a pune în libertate “to release (an element from a compound)”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1794 – libertatea “freedom” in the Calendariu, the first record.^[5][3]
• c. 1812 – in Șincai's chronicle.^[4]
• 1848 – a headword in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[13]
• 1862 – glossed French liberté, indépendance by Pontbriant.^[15]
• 1870 – Costinescu sets it against servitude and captivity.^[16]
• 1886 – the freedoms of conscience, thought, worship and the press in Barcianu.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. freedom, liberty: the possibility of acting according to one's own will or wish;^[2][3] în libertate “freely, as one pleases”;^[2][3] a-și lua libertatea să… “to take the liberty of…”.^[2][3]
2. The condition of a person who enjoys full political and civil rights; the state of one who has no master, or who is not in prison: a pune în libertate “to set free”.^[2]
3. independence of a state from a foreign power.^[2]
4. (in the plural) The fundamental rights of citizens: libertatea presei “freedom of the press”, libertate de conștiință “freedom of conscience”.^[2][7]
5. (chiefly in the plural) A too familiar manner of behaving.^[8][10]
6. (popular) revolution.^[5]

Related words

• liber
• Latin lībertās

Usage notes

Old and popular variants include libărtate and libertație.^[3][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. 589
3. ^ 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, 1359
4. ^ 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. libertate
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. libertate
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. libertate
7. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. libertate
8. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. libertate
9. ^ 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. liber
10. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 744
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. lībertās
12. ^ Gáldi, László (1943), Az erdélyi román nyelvújítás, Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia (Értekezések a nyelv- és széptudományi osztály köréből XXVI/4), p. 55
13. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. libertate
14. ^ 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. 350
15. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 404
16. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 32