matur

Forms

matur m or n (feminine singular matură, masculine plural maturi, feminine/neuter plural mature)^[1] It is also stressed on the first syllable, mátur, in popular speech.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mātūrus (“ripe, full-grown”), with Italian maturo as a second model.^{[4][5][2][6][1]} Ciorănescu calls it a 19th-century doublet of mator “old”, which he takes from Old Church Slavonic маторъ (matorŭ), perhaps itself from the Latin word;^[7][8] Tiktin treats this word as a form of the older word remodelled after Latin.^[7][8] The REW records Moldavian mătur “rotten”, and the same spelling as this word meaning “old man”, as the inherited continuations of the Latin word.^[9]

The Latin adjective presupposes a noun Proto-Italic *mātu- (“ripeness”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-tu-; the same root is in mānus (“good”) and Mātūta (“goddess of dawn”).^[10][1] From the sense “timely, early” Latin also formed the words for the morning, whence Romanian matineu through French.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is Vasile Vîrnav's manuscript translation of Muratori's Filosofia moralicească (1825), where it is said of a judgement: „O ură matură asupra necinstei” “a mature hatred of dishonesty”.^[5][4] Klein's dictionary of 1801 had already listed Mátur with Latin maturus as its equivalent.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word came in with its figurative senses: Heliade uses it of a young man who judges more maturely, and Pann's „deschide ochii matur” “open your eyes wisely” is adverbial.^[4] Of persons it means grown to full physical and intellectual development, as in Ispirescu and Agârbiceanu; of judgements and acts, well considered, serious, and by extension profound.^[4][2] Damé in 1893 gives the adverb “maturely”, and the sense “ripe” of fruit, the Latin and Italian one, did not take hold.^[13][14] A homonymous mátur is a regional form of martor “witness”.^[4][5]

Timeline

• 1825 – matură of a feeling in Vîrnav's translation of Muratori.^[5]
• 1870 – listed in Costinescu's dictionary.^[4]
• 1875 – Antonescu glosses maturu as French mûr.^[14]
• 1893 – Damé records the adverb, “maturely”.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. mature, adult: having reached full physical and intellectual development; experienced, of sound judgement.^[2][5][1]
2. Of thought or acts: showing deep judgement, serious, well considered; by extension profound: o hotărâre matură.^[2][6]

Noun

1. An adult man or woman.^[5]

Adverb

1. Maturely, after long thought.^[5][4]

Word family

• maturiza

Related words

• maturitate
• imatur
• mator

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 625
3. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 29
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. matur
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, 1443
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. matur
7. ^ 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. mator
8. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. matur
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5433
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 60
12. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 397
13. ^ a b Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. matur
14. ^ a b Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 174