mariaj

Forms

mariaj n (plural mariaje)^[1] An older spelling is mariagiu, as in the Civil Code edited by Hamangiu: „Orice donațiune făcută între soți în timpul mariagiului este revocabilă” “any gift made between spouses during the marriage is revocable”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French mariage (“marriage”).^{[4][5][3][2][1]} Tiktin says it came from French both directly and through other languages.^[6] The French word is formed from marier (“to marry”) with the suffix -age.^[1] Within Romanian it can be read as maria with the suffix -aj, as Wiktionary notes.^[1]

The card game of the same name was also called mariaș or mărieș;^[7][6] CADE compares Polish marjasz for these forms.^[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1839, in Vaillant's dictionary, with the sense “wedding, marriage”.^[6] MDA2's first record is Polizu's Romanian–German vocabulary of 1857.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word has always been a Gallicism beside native căsătorie and căsnicie, and dictionaries label it bookish or French.^[2][8] In the 19th century it was also the name of a card game in which a king and queen of the same suit score extra points;^[3][7] Filimon's Ciocoii vechi și noi (1863) names mariașul among the games people gathered to play.^[3][7] In the press of the 1990s, after French, it came to mean a political alliance, a sense the dictionaries did not yet record.^[9] MDN gives the general figurative sense of a union of several things.^[10]

Timeline

• 1839 – recorded in Vaillant's dictionary.^[6]
• 1857 – in Polizu's Romanian–German vocabulary.^[3]
• 1863 – mariașul, the card game, in Filimon's Ciocoii vechi și noi.^[7]
• 1999 – “political alliance” in the press.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (formal) marriage, wedlock.^[4][3][1]
2. Married life.^[3][4]
3. (figurative) A union of several things; a political alliance.^[10][9]
4. (dated) A card game in which a king and queen of the same suit score extra points.^[3][2]

Related words

• French mariage

Usage notes

The plural is mariaje, rarely mariajuri, the form Tiktin gives.^[3][6] The i and a are pronounced in separate syllables, ma-ri-aj.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mariaj
3. ^ 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, 1434
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 620
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. mariaj
6. ^ 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. mariáj
7. ^ a b c d e Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. mariaj
8. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan” (1998), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, 2nd ed., București: Univers Enciclopedic, p. 600
9. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. mariáj
10. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. mariaj