mister

Forms

mister n (plural mistere)^[1] An older form misteriu is in Șincai's Catechism of 1783: „Cele șeapte sfinte taine sau misterii” “the seven holy sacraments or mysteries”.^[2][3] The Greek-shaped mistiriu appears in Tomici: „Mistiria sfintei cuminecături” “the mystery of Holy Communion”.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French mystère, also borrowed from Latin mystērium, as DEX and MDA2 give it;^[4][3][1] MDA2 adds Modern Greek μυστήριον (mystírion).^[4][3][1] The DLR derives the word from French, the older misteriu from Latin and mistiriu from Greek.^[2] Tiktin names the Greek and Latin word and French.^[5] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek μυστήριον (mustḗrion, “secret rite”), formed on μύστης (mústēs, “initiate”), from μυέω (muéō, “to initiate into the mysteries”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1691, in the church sense “sacrament”.^[5] MDA2's first record is Șincai's Catechism of 1783, where misterii glosses the seven sacraments.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense, a Christian dogma beyond human reason, came first.^[2][5] In the 19th century the general sense “secret, something not understood” spread: Asachi and an 1836 newspaper already use it, and Negulici in 1848 defines it as a secret, what a religion keeps most hidden.^[2][6] The Romantic poets used it often, Eminescu, Alecsandri and Macedonski among them.^[2] Later senses are the secret rites of ancient Greece and Rome and the religious plays of the Middle Ages, both in the plural.^[4][7]

Timeline

• 1691 – the first record, “sacrament”.^[5]
• 1783 – misterii “sacraments” in Șincai's Catechism.^[3][2]
• 1836 – “a secret” in a newspaper.^[2]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mystery: something not yet understood or discovered; a secret, an enigma.^[4][1]
2. A Christian dogma the Church holds to be beyond human reason.^[4]
3. (in the plural) The secret religious rites of ancient Greece and Rome, open only to the initiated.^[4][8]
4. (in the plural) Mystery plays: medieval verse dramas, at first religious, staged at feasts.^[4]

Usage notes

The plural is mistere;^[2][7] misteruri occurs in Caragiale and other 19th-century writers.^[2][7] A separate word mister, masculine, is the English form of address “Mister”, from English, recorded from 1978.^[4][3][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mister
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. 2, 26
4. ^ 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. 660
5. ^ 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. mister
6. ^ 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. mister
7. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 92
8. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. mister
9. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. mister