medic

Forms

medic m (plural medici, feminine equivalent medică)^[1] The first records keep the Latin form medicus: „Slăvitul medicus Ipocrat” “the glorious physician Hippocrates” (Țichindeal).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowed from Latin medicus (“physician”), as DEX, DLR, MDA2, MDN, Tiktin and Wiktionary give it.^{[4][2][3][5][6][1]} Ciorănescu has it as borrowed from Italian medico instead.^[7] The old adjective “medical”, also written medec, is from the same Italian word according to DLR and MDA2.^[2][3]

The Latin noun is formed on medeor (“to heal, cure”) with the suffix -icus, although Prósper rejects this, since -icus seldom attaches to verb stems, and sees in it Proto-Italic *meddiks.^[8][1] Nocentini traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to think, measure”).^[9] REW lists inherited forms of the Latin word in Italian dialects, Catalan metge and Occitan metge, but none in Romanian.^[10]

Graur places it with premedita and other words among the Romanian neologisms of the family of the Latin verb.^[11] Ciorănescu takes medical, medicină, medicinal and medicament from French, and protomedic “chief physician of the court” is formed with the prefix proto-.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to 1808, in Țichindeal, and DLR quotes him writing the Latin form: „Slăvitul medicus Ipocrat” “the glorious physician Hippocrates”, and „Medicul din London” “the doctor from London”.^[6][2] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 has medicu, with Latin medicus, Hungarian orvos and German Arzt.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed “a person who practises medicine”, a learned synonym of doctor.^[4][13] Negulici's vocabulary of neologisms of 1848 has it, with a saying that the greatest physicians are sleep and death.^[14] A figurative sense, “something that brings a cure”, is in Șăineanu and Scriban: time is the great physician.^[15][13] Costinescu in 1870 records the proverb Medice, lecuiește-te pe tine însuți “Physician, heal thyself”.^[16]

DLR lists the set terms medic legist “forensic doctor”, medic primar and medic secundar.^[2] Medic de familie “family doctor”, after French médecin de famille, is recorded from 2003.^[17][4]

The adjective “medical”, from Italian, appears in 1829 („deregătoria medecă” “the medical office”) and was later replaced by medical.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1808 – medicus “physician” in Țichindeal, the first record.^[6][2]
• 1825 – medicu in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[12]
• 1829 – the adjective medec “medical”.^[2][3]
• 1848 – medic in Negulici's vocabulary of neologisms.^[14]
• 1870 – the proverb Medice, lecuiește-te pe tine însuți in Costinescu.^[16]
• 2003 – medic de familie “family doctor”.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A physician, doctor: a person with a university degree who practises medicine;^[4][18][1] medic de familie “family doctor”, medic veterinar “veterinarian”.^[4][18][1]
2. (figurative) Something that heals or brings comfort: Timpul e cel mai bun medic. “Time is the best healer.”^[15][13]

Adjective

1. (obsolete) medical.^[2][3]

Word family

• medical
• protomedic

Related words

• medicină
• medicament
• doctor
• Latin medicus

Usage notes

The feminine medică names a woman doctor.^[1][13] Separately, DEX has a homograph medic² “Median, of the Medes (and the Persians)”, which it derives from med “Mede”;^[4][1] Scriban cites it in războaiele medice “the Persian Wars”.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. medic
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1479
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 636
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. medic
6. ^ 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. medic
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. medic
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5459
11. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
12. ^ 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. 383
13. ^ a b c d e Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 792
14. ^ a b 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. medic
15. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 392
16. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 82
17. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. medic
18. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 50