maior

Forms

maior m (plural maiori)^[1]

Etymology

The military rank is borrowed from German Major, partly by way of Russian майор (major).^[2][3] DEX 2009, MDA2 and the DLR name both the Russian and the German word, Wiktionary either of them.^[4][5][6][1] Gabinschi traces the chain: Russian took the word from German, and German from Spanish mayor (“greater”).^[7] Kluge dates the German word to the 16th century and takes it from Spanish, which continues Latin māior (“greater”), the comparative of magnus (“great”).^[8][9] The Bulgarian word too is international, probably taken through Russian.^[10]

The Latin comparative goes back to Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂yōs.^[1] Romanian has its doublet major, from French, and Graur places both beside mare and mai in the same Latin family.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Ion Neculce's chronicle of Moldavia (c. 1743), in gheneral maior “major general”.^[3][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Ciorănescu sees Russian only as a partial intermediary.^[2] In Transylvania and the Banat Borcia records it as a soldiers' word from German and quotes it from a folk song of Lugoj.^[12] Costinescu in 1870 still described the rank by its French model, the officer in charge of a regiment's administration.^[13] A popular variant maiur and the old vocative maiore are recorded.^[5][6] The derivatives are maioreasă “a major's wife” and maiorie “the rank of major”.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1743 – gheneral maior in Neculce's chronicle.^[3][5]
• 1816 – the vocative arhon maiore in a translation of Kotzebue.^[6]
• 1829 – maiorul Martenchevici of the Azov regiment, in a periodical.^[6]
• 1870 – Costinescu defines the French-style rank.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. major: the officer's rank above căpitan and below locotenent-colonel.^[4][5][1]
2. An officer who holds this rank.^[4][5]

Word family

• maioreasă

Related words

• major
• Latin māior

Usage notes

MDA2 and the DLR also have an adjective maior (feminine maioră), which they treat only as a variant of major.^[5][6] Costinescu (1870) lists it as an adjective meaning “greater, older; of age” and as a card-game term, a learned form of the same Latin word.^[13] The compound general-maior names the lowest general's rank.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. maior
3. ^ 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. maior
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 612
5. ^ 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, 1421
6. ^ 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. maior
7. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 125
8. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
9. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
10. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 3, 617
11. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 59
12. ^ Borcia, Ioan (1903–1904), Deutsche Sprachelemente im Rumänischen, Leipzig (in Weigand, Zehnter Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig), p. 61
13. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 60
14. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 8