mărturisi

Forms

mărturisi (first-person singular present mărturisesc, third-person singular present mărturisește, past participle mărturisit), 4th conjugation^[1][2] The Codicele Voronețean doubles the r: „cumu mărrturrisiși ceaia ce-e de mene întru Ierusalim, așa se cade și în Rrimu a mărturisi” “as you testified about me in Jerusalem, so must you testify in Rome” (Acts 23:11).^[3] MDA2 lists the old variants mărturesi, mărtorisi, mărtoresi, mărtorosi, mărtărusi and mărtirisi.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic марторисати (martorisati), which comes from Modern Greek μαρτυρώ (martyró, “to bear witness”);^[1][2][5] DEX and NODEX give the Slavonic word alone.^[1][2][5] Ciorănescu takes it from the Greek verb, partly through the Slavonic, and MDA2 names both; the ⟨-is-⟩ comes from the Greek aorist μαρτύρησα (martýrisa).^[6][4] Wikționar calls the origin uncertain, probably Medieval Greek, which also gave the Slavonic word.^[7] BER takes the South Slavic verbs, including Bulgarian мартирисвам (martirisvam), from Greek in the same way.^[8][1]

The Greek verb continues Ancient Greek μαρτυρέω (marturéō).^[4] It belongs with martor “witness”, which Romanian inherited from Latin, and mărturie “testimony”, from Greek.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Coresi's Tetraevanghel, in the sense “to preach”: John the Baptist mărturisiia in the wilderness of Judaea.^[3][9] The Codicele Voronețean, MDA2's first record, uses it for bearing witness in Jerusalem and in Rome (Acts 23:11).^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense “to preach, to profess a faith” is now dated.^[2][3] In 17th-century documents the verb is the formula of testimony, mărturisim cu ceastă scrisoare “we bear witness by this letter”, and in the laws it is the witness's deposition.^[10] Miron Costin uses it for professing the Christian faith.^[10]

The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of the 17th century gloss mărturisesc both “I testify” and “I confess”.^[11] From confession came the church sense: a se mărturisi “to go to confession” and, of a priest, “to hear someone's confession”, beside spovedi.^[2][3] The modern senses are to state, to admit as true and to reveal a secret.^[2] Tiktin also records it for the priest announcing the banns of a wedding, and in the charms of Hațeg the verb has a special sense.^[10][12]

Timeline

• 1560–1561 – mărturisiia “preached” in Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[3][9]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean, MDA2's first record.^[4]
• 1620 – “to testify” in a document.^[10]
• 1649 – mărturisesc “I testify” in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• c. 1660–1670 – mărturisesc also “I confess” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1688 – frequent in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To declare, state, relate; specifically, to give evidence before a court;^[2][4] (dated) to preach a faith.^[2][4]
2. To prove, attest, bear witness to.^[2]
3. (transitive) To admit as true, to acknowledge; to confess.^[2][1]
4. (transitive) To say openly; to show plainly.^[2]
5. (transitive and reflexive) To confide, to disclose;^[2][4] (reflexive) to go to confession;^[2][4] (transitive, of a priest) to hear someone's confession.^[2][4]

Word family

• mărturisire
• mărturisitor
• mărturiseală

Related words

• martir
• martor
• mărturie

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 629
3. ^ 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. mărturisi
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1458
5. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional
6. ^ a b 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. martor
7. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
8. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 3, 674
9. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. dobitoc
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. mărturisi
11. ^ a b c Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro
12. ^ Densusianu, Ovid (1915), Graiul din Țara Hațegului, București: Socec, p. 323
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition)