loial

Forms

loial m or n (feminine singular loială, masculine plural loiali, feminine/neuter plural loiale)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French loyal.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The French word continues Old French loial, earlier leial, from Latin lēgālis (“according to the law”), which gave French the learned légal;^[1][6] Romanian legal and loial are therefore a doublet.^[1][6] In French the sense of honour and probity came from the values of chivalry; the word was rare in the 17th century and was taken up again at the end of the 18th, when the two French words were finally kept apart in meaning.^[6]

Romanian has a second form of the same word, leal, from Italian leale.^[7][8] Ciorănescu treats the two as doublets.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DLR's earliest dated quotation is from a text of 1855: „Oamenii loiali și sinceri... trebuie să se mărturisească... chiar pe când este în dezavantajul lor” “loyal and sincere people must declare themselves... even when it is to their disadvantage”.^[4] MDA2 dates the first record to Asachi's drama Elena Dragoș of 1863, where the word is used adverbially of killing a man in prison without trial, which “is not fair”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 says the word is used of people full of honour and probity, and of things that are as they should be, not falsified, and sets it beside franc.^[10] The early 20th-century dictionaries refer it to leal: CADE and Scriban define it there.^[11][12] DLRLC still labels it a Gallicism.^[13] DLR's 20th-century quotations use it of citizens, comrades, friends and political adversaries.^[4]

Timeline

• 1855 – the first dated quotation in DLR.^[4]
• 1863 – adverbial use in Asachi's Elena Dragoș.^[3][4]
• 1870 – defined in Costinescu's dictionary.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. loyal: who honestly keeps the obligations he has taken on; sincere, honest, faithful, leal.^[2][3]
2. Of feelings or actions: showing such honesty and faithfulness.^[3]

Adverb

1. Sincerely, fairly.^[3]

Related words

• leal
• legal
• loialitate
• French loyal

Usage notes

It is pronounced with the syllables lo-ial; a variant loaial also occurs.^[2][3][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 600
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, 1389
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. loial
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. loial
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 582
8. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1332
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. leal
10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 46
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. loial
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 756
13. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 778