mărime

Forms

mărime f (plural mărimi)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian mare (“big, great”) + -ime, with the suffix of abstract nouns.^[2][3][1][4] Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of the adjective.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and Tiktin date the first record to the Paraclis of 1639, where it means “pride”: among the seven deadly sins it names „mânia, lenea, mărimea deșartă, trufiia” “anger, sloth, vainglory, haughtiness”.^[3][4][2]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the word meant pride and arrogance, rank and dignity, and greatness of soul (mărime de suflet “magnanimity”); the DLR marks these senses as obsolete.^[2][6] The sense of size is recorded from 1783, when a traveller compared a bird's egg to another „aseamene la mărime” “alike in size”, and in 1830 the Curierul rumânesc used it of the newspaper's format.^[2] Klein's dictionary of 1801 and the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 gloss it as Latin magnitūdō.^[7][8]

The plural mărimi, and regionally mărimuri, came to name people of high rank, today usually with irony.^[3][9][10] The modern dictionaries add technical senses: a physical quantity, a mathematical magnitude and the stellar magnitude of astronomy.^[9]

Timeline

• 1639 – mărimea deșartă “vainglory” in the Paraclis, the first record.^[3][4][2]
• 1688 – mărimea “greatness” in the Bucharest Bible (Psalm 144:6).^[11]
• 1783 – the sense “size”.^[2]
• 1801 – Klein glosses it as Latin magnitudo.^[7]
• 1830 – the format of the Curierul rumânesc.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. size: the quality of being big; extent, dimension, quantity, volume.^[9][1]
2. Height, stature; the size of a garment or shoe.^[9][12]
3. Proportion, value; importance, seriousness.^[9]
4. (physics) A physical quantity: a property by which objects can be ordered in a series;^[9] mărime de stare “state variable”.^[9]
5. (mathematics) A magnitude, a notion generalising length, area or mass;^[9][1] (astronomy) mărime stelară “stellar magnitude”.^[9][1]
6. Duration.^[9][3]
7. Grandeur, glory, fame.^[9]
8. High rank, dignity; a person of high rank, often ironic in the plural.^[9][3]

Related words

• mare
• măreție
• mări
• mărire
• mărit
• măritor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. mărime
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1457
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mărime
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 72
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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. 378
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 629
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. mărime
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ps 144:6
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. mărime