masculin

Forms

masculin m or n (feminine singular masculină, masculine plural masculini, feminine/neuter plural masculine)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French masculin, a neologism of the 19th century, and was also borrowed from Latin masculīnus (“of the male sex”) as a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] Tiktin and Scriban name only the Latin word, while the DLR and the neologism dictionaries put the French first.^[5][6][7][8] The Latin adjective is formed with the suffix -īnus on masculus (“male”), a diminutive of mās (“male, man”).^[1][9][6] The French word was inherited from Old French masculin, itself borrowed from the Latin adjective.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1840, in Heliade Rădulescu.^[5] MDA2 cites it from Heliade's Paralelism între dialectele român și italian of 1841, a comparison of Romanian and Italian.^[3] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 explains it as “of the male gender”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word served both for the male sex and for grammatical gender.^[10][7] Costinescu in 1870 already used it as a noun, masculinele “the masculine nouns”, beside femininele.^[11] Scriban illustrates the grammatical gender with stâlp “pillar”, masculine, beside the feminine coloană and the neuter pod.^[6] The DLR quotes Maiorescu on Caesar's male descendants.^[7]

Later senses are “made up of men”, of sports teams, a botanical sense “male” and the prosodic sense of a rhyme stressed on the last syllable.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1840 – Heliade Rădulescu, the first record.^[5]
• 1841 – Heliade's Paralelism între dialectele român și italian.^[3]
• 1848 – Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[10][7]
• 1870 – the noun masculinele “masculine nouns” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the male sex; by extension, proper to men or males; bărbătesc: voce masculină.^[2][3]
2. Made up of men: echipa masculină de handbal.^[2][3]
3. (grammar) Belonging to the masculine gender;^[2][12] genul masculin (also as a noun, masculinul) is the gender of names of male beings and of things classed with them.^[2][12]
4. (botany) Male, of a plant or flower; mascul.^[2]
5. (prosody) Of a rhyme or line: ending in a stressed last syllable.^[2][4]

Related words

• masculinitate
• mascul
• feminin
• Latin masculus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 622
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1439
4. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. masculin
5. ^ 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. masculin
6. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 779
7. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. masculin
8. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. masculin
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. masculin
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 76
12. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 25