liceu

Forms

liceu n (plural licee)^[1] Early 19th-century texts also have lițeu and lițeum: the 1829 press reported that many lițeumuri (glossed academii) had been founded in Odessa.^[2][3] MDA2 records the rare variants licheon, licheu, lichiu and lițăum, and a regional plural liceauă.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French lycée and Latin lyceum, the two sources that DEX and MDN name.^[4][5] DN and DER give French alone, DN comparing the Greek word.^[6][7] MDA2 and the DLR add German Lyzeum, and MDA2 also Latin lycium and Modern Greek λυκεῖον (lykeíon).^[3][2] The DLR takes the old variant licheu from the Greek word.^[2] South of the Danube the word is Aromanian lichiu, which DER also derives from Greek.^[7][8][9]

The French noun is the common-noun use, from 1721, of the proper name of the gymnasium outside Athens where Aristotle taught, borrowed from Latin and ultimately from Ancient Greek Λύκειον (Lúkeion).^[10][1] The Greek name comes from the nearby temple of Apollo Λύκειος (Lúkeios), an epithet of uncertain meaning; the DHLF connects it with λύκος (lúkos, “wolf”).^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is of 1827, in Constantin Golescu's translation of Neofit Vamva's Elementari de filosofie morală.^[3] Golescu also used the word for a school of higher learning: „lițeu[l] cel mare, unde dă învățare în limba elinească acel vestit profesor” “the great lyceum, where that famous professor teaches in Greek”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense in the dictionaries is the garden at Athens where Aristotle taught, and by extension his Peripatetic school.^[3][11] In the first half of the 19th century the word also meant a meeting place of men of letters and a place of instruction in philosophy, the arts and the sciences;^[2] Negulici wrote in 1848 that „liceile noastre au dat lui Bonaparte o generație de soldați” “our lycées gave Bonaparte a generation of soldiers”.^[2] The 1829 press explained it with the native școli mari “great schools”.^[2]

The sense of a secondary school, between primary school and university, became the usual one; the DA describes classical, technical and commercial licee for boys and girls.^[12][13] Today it names the cycle of education that follows the gymnasium.^[4] In Transylvania it can also mean a year or a class of such a school.^[3] Its derivatives are liceal and licean “secondary-school pupil”.^[7][12]

Timeline

• 1827 – the first record, in Golescu's translation of Neofit Vamva.^[3]
• 1829 – lițeumuri and liceuri in the press, of schools founded in Russia.^[2]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[14][2]
• 1870 – Costinescu gives the senses “meeting place of men of letters” and “public school”.^[15]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it with German gelehrte Schule and Lyceum.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. high school, lycée: the cycle of secondary education that follows the gymnasium and prepares pupils for university or for a trade.^[4][3]
2. The building of such a school.^[3]
3. (regional, Transylvania) A year or a class of secondary school.^[3]
4. (historical) The garden at Athens where Aristotle taught; by extension, his school of philosophy.^[3][6]

Word family

• liceal
• licean

Related words

• colegiu
• gimnaziu
• Aromanian lichiu

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. liceu
3. ^ 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, 1361
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 589
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. liceu
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. liceu
7. ^ 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. liceu
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 585
9. ^ 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. 2, 57
10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 363
12. ^ a b 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. liceu
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 755
14. ^ 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. liceu
15. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 34
16. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 350