măcelar

Forms

măcelar m (plural măcelari)^[1] Old and regional variants are măcilariu, măciular and măciolar.^[2][3] Dosoftei writes „măcilariu de muncit oameni” “an executioner who tortured people”.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin macellārius (“butcher, meat seller”), from macellum (“meat market”).^{[5][6][2][3][7][1]} Its Romance cognates include Italian macellaio, Old French maiselier and Occitan mazelier.^[5][8] Tiktin allows that it may have come through Italian macellaro.^[4] Ciorănescu also compares Modern Greek μακελλάρης (makelláris), the source of Albanian makjeljar.^[7]

The simple word măcel “massacre” is of doubtful origin: it does not appear in old texts and is not a popular word, and Tiktin and Candrea took it as a literary loan from Italian macello.^[7] Ciorănescu suggests that the agent noun may have lasted because of it.^[7] Wiktionary also notes the surface analysis from Romanian măcel + -ar.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of about 1660–1670 (Lex.St.), where măcelar glosses a Slavonic word for “slaughterer”.^[9] Tiktin dates the word to Dosoftei in 1683, where it has the old sense “executioner, torturer”.^[4][2] MDA2's first record is Șincai's chronicle (printed 1853): „Era în Țarigrad un macelariu anume Ianake” “There was in Constantinople a butcher called Ianake”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “butcher”, someone who slaughters animals and sells their meat, is the main one; in Moldavia the Turkish loan casap is used as well.^[2][4] The old sense “executioner” is recorded only in Dosoftei.^[2][3] The figurative sense “brutal, pitiless man” appears in a folk poem collected by Alecsandri, which calls a Turkish commander măcelarul frâncilor “the butcher of the Franks”; colloquially it is also said of a surgeon who works clumsily and roughly.^[2][4] The proverb Cuțitul la brâu, semn de măcelar “a knife at the belt is the mark of a butcher” is in Zanne's collection.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1660-1670 – măcelar in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicon Lex.St.^[9]
• 1683 – măcilariu “executioner” in Dosoftei.^[4][2]
• 1853 – macelariu “butcher” in Șincai's chronicle.^[3][2]
• 1870 – Cihac lists the derivatives măcelări and măcelărie.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. butcher: a person who slaughters animals for meat and sells the meat; casap.^[6][3][1]
2. (figurative) A cruel, brutal man; a bloodthirsty killer.^[6][3]
3. (colloquial) A surgeon who operates roughly and badly.^[3][2]
4. (obsolete) An executioner.^[3][2]

Word family

• măcelăreasă
• măcelărie
• măcelări

Related words

• măcel
• Latin macellarius

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. măcelar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1446
4. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. măcelar
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5201
6. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 626
7. ^ a b c d 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. măcel
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
9. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. măcelar
10. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 151