măiestru

Forms

măiestru m or n (feminine singular măiastră, masculine plural măieștri, feminine/neuter plural măiestre)^[1] The old texts spell it măestru: the New Testament of 1648 calls Apollos „bărbat grăitoriu măestru” “an eloquent man”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin magister (“master, teacher”), perhaps through a Vulgar Latin form *maistrum.^{[4][5][3][2][1]} Ciorănescu cites Pușcariu (no. 1016), Candrea–Densusianu (no. 1043), the REW and Tiktin, and says that the history of the word is not clear.^[4][6] Candrea–Densusianu explain the loss of /g/ as already Vulgar Latin.^[7] The Romance cognates include Italian maestro, French maître, Spanish maestro, Portuguese mestre and Catalan mestre.^[7][4] The Latin noun is formed on magis (“more”).^[8][1]

Romanian has several doublets from the same Latin word: maestru from Italian, maistru from German, maistor from Greek, meșter from Hungarian, and the learned magistru.^[4][9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Pravila of about 1560.^[10] MDA2 dates the word from the New Testament of Bălgrad (1648), where it means “skilful in speech”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the word meant “wise, learned, skilful”: Moxa calls a commander bold and măiestru in war, and the 1688 Bible calls the wise men of Babylon măiestrii.^[10][4] Mardarie's lexicon of 1649 uses it to gloss Slavonic words for an orator and a cunning man.^[11] It was also said of work done with art, as in the 1648 New Testament's cuvinte măiastre “artful words”.^[2]

In folk tales the word came to mean “magic, endowed with supernatural powers”: the pasăre măiastră is a fairy-tale bird, and zâne măiestre are the iele.^[3][5][10] The feminine măiastră became a noun for a fairy.^[4][7] The authors of the Lexicon de la Buda (1825) did not know what pasere măiastră meant and guessed a magic bird or a fabled one, having heard it only in tales.^[12] In the 19th century writers such as Eminescu revived the sense “masterly”, in mână măiastră “a masterly hand”.^[2][13]

Timeline

• c. 1560 – Coresi's Pravila.^[10]
• 1648 – măestru “eloquent” in the New Testament of Bălgrad.^[3][2]
• 1649 – măestru in Mardarie's lexicon.^[11]
• 1688 – măiestru in the Bucharest Bible, 1 Corinthians 3:10.^[14]
• 1825 – măiestru “artful, masterly” and pasere măiastră in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of people) skilful, ingenious, masterly.^[5][3][1]
2. made or done with great skill.^[5][15]
3. (in fairy tales) endowed with magic powers;^[5][3][1] pasăre măiastră “a fairy-tale bird with supernatural gifts”.^[5][3][1]
4. (by extension) wonderful, enchanted, as in a fairy tale.^[5]

Noun

1. (dated) a learned man.^[3][2]

Word family

• măiestrie
• măiestrit

Related words

• magistru
• maestru
• maistru
• meșter
• Latin magister

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. măiestru
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, 1449
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. măestru
5. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 627
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5229
7. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. magister
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 59
10. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. măiestru
11. ^ 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. măestru
12. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 369
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 35
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 1 Cor 3:10
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. măiestru