măreț

Forms

măreț m or n (feminine singular măreață, masculine plural măreți, feminine/neuter plural mărețe)^[1]

Etymology

It is a Romanian formation with the suffix -eț.^[2][3][4] DEX, MDA2 and DLR derive it from Romanian mări + -eț, from the verb “to make bigger, to glorify”,^[2][3][5] while Tiktin, Scriban and Wiktionary take it from the adjective mare (“big, great”).^[4][6][1] Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of the adjective and reports that Pușcariu saw in it Vulgar Latin *maricius, less probably a Romanian formation with the suffix.^[7] Wiktionary also mentions the Latin form, as the less likely explanation.^[1] Pușcariu's dictionary itself only compares the adjective.^[8] DEX traces the adjective to Latin mās (“male”),^[9] Wiktionary, more probably, to maiōrem (“greater”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1543.^[4] MDA2 takes it from Coresi's Carte de învățătură (1581), where the meaning is “proud, haughty”: „necurat e de la Dumnezeu tot trufașul cela cu inima măreață” “every proud one with a haughty heart is unclean before God”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The old sense was moral: “proud, arrogant”, used of the proud whom God resists, as in Coresi, the New Testament of 1648 and Dosoftei's psalter.^[5][4] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons give it for Slavonic words meaning “vainglorious, puffed up, disobedient”.^[10] Klein's dictionary of 1801 and the Lexicon of Buda (1825) still translate it with Latin superbus and arrogans.^[11][12] The sense “grand, majestic, magnificent” is recorded in the 19th century: Costinescu (1870) defines it as “grandiose, magnificent”.^[13] It is the first sense in the modern dictionaries.^[2][14] Tiktin compares the development of Latin superbus.^[4] The old sense lives on in folk speech, often with verbs such as a se ține “to carry oneself”: Ce te ții așa măreț? “why do you hold yourself so proudly?” in a folk song.^[5][2]

Timeline

• 1543 – first record, after Tiktin.^[4]
• 1581 – măreață “haughty” in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[3][5]
• 1648 – the noun use măreților “to the proud” in the New Testament of 1648.^[5]
• 1649 – Mardarie's lexicon glosses Slavonic тщеславный “vainglorious”.^[10]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary: Màrétzu = Latin superbus.^[11]
• 1870 – “grandiose, magnificent” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Inspiring admiration through its size or exceptional qualities; grandiose, imposing, majestic: o priveliște măreață “a magnificent view”.^[2][3]
2. (dated, regional) proud, haughty, conceited.^[2][5]

Adverb

1. Proudly, in a stately way;^[3][14] (rare) lavishly: Generalul trecea măreț prin fața trupelor. “The general passed proudly before the troops.”.^[3][14]

Word family

• măreție

Related words

• mare
• mări

Usage notes

In Transylvanian speech the word still means “conceited, stuck-up”.^[5][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 628
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, 1455
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. măreț
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. măreț
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 787
7. ^ 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. mare
8. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 89
9. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 619
10. ^ 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. măreț
11. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 396
12. ^ 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. 377
13. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 71
14. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 38