mărturisire

Forms

mărturisire f (plural mărturisiri)^[1]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of mărturisi (“to confess, to testify”), formed from Romanian mărturisi + -re and used as a noun.^[1][2][3][4] The verb comes from Old Church Slavonic марторисати (martorisati), which renders Ancient Greek μαρτυρέω (marturéō, “to bear witness”) (MDA2 compares its aorist μαρτύρησα (martúrēsa)); Wiktionary compares Bulgarian мартирисвам (martirisvam, “to confess”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the noun to 1559–1560, in the Apostle of the priest Bratu, and gives “testimony” as its old sense.^[4] In the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of the later 17th century it glosses исповѣдание (ispovědanije, “confession”).^[5] MDA2's first record is the Cheia înțelesului of 1678.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the noun meant above all the open profession of a faith: the DLR quotes a text of 1774 on not opposing mărturisirea legii creștinești “the profession of the Christian faith”, and mărturisirea credinței is the Creed.^[6][2] From “testimony, declaration” came the legal sense of a statement made before a court, while the religious use gave the sense “confession of sins”, a synonym of spovedanie.^[6][1][7] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 already gives both: Latin testatio, confessio and, in the church sense, confessio peccatorum.^[8] In modern use it is also a personal disclosure, a confidence.^[1][9]

Timeline

• 1559–1560 – in the Apostle of the priest Bratu, the first record.^[4]
• c. 1660 – in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, glossing “confession”.^[5]
• 1678 – in the Cheia înțelesului, MDA2's first record.^[2]
• 1688 – used 21 times in the Bucharest Bible.^[10]
• 1774 – mărturisirea legii creștinești “the profession of the Christian faith”.^[6]
• 1825 – “testimony, confession” and “confession of sins” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of declaring or affirming something; a statement, a testimony.^[1][2]
2. (law) A confession made before a court or an investigating authority about one's own acts.^[1][11]
3. A disclosure, a confidence: something private told to another.^[1][12]
4. (religion) Confession of sins; the same as spovedanie.^[1][9]
5. (obsolete) The profession or preaching of a faith;^[2][6] mărturisirea credinței “the Creed”.^[2][6]

Related words

• mărturie
• martor
• mărturisitor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 629
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1458
3. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
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. mărturisíre
5. ^ 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. mărturisire
6. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mărturisire
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 386
8. ^ 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. 379
9. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 42
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. s.v. mărturisire
11. ^ Breban, Vasile (1980), Dicționar al limbii române contemporane de uz curent, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. s.v. mărturisire
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. mărturisire