modest

Forms

modest m or n (feminine singular modestă, masculine plural modești, feminine/neuter plural modeste)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin modestus (“moderate, restrained”), with French modeste and Italian modesto as further models, according to DEX, MDA2 and the DLR.^[2][3][4] Tiktin names only the Italian and French words, Scriban only the Latin one;^[5][1] Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing from Latin or a borrowing from French or Italian.^[6][5][1] The Latin adjective is related to modus (“measure”).^[7][1] The French word is a learned borrowing of the Latin one, recorded from 1370–1372.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Micu's Loghica of 1781.^[6] The DLR and MDA2 begin with Petru Maior's translation of Telemachus (1818), which praises the women of a country as beautiful but without pride, modeste and given to work.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was moral: free of conceit, moderate in conduct and claims.^[4][2] Asachi glossed it as “shy, not loving pomp”, and Negulici's dictionary of 1848 defines it as having modesty.^[4][9] The sense “small, of little value, plain” is given by Costinescu in 1870, with the example culoare modestă “a colour that does not strike the eye”.^[10] In the phrase a face pe modestul “to play the modest one” it is used as a noun.^[4]

Timeline

• 1781 – in Micu's Loghica, the first record.^[6]
• 1818 – modeste in Petru Maior's Telemachus.^[4][3]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[9]
• 1870 – the sense “plain, simple” in Costinescu.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Free of conceit, modest; by extension moderate and sober in conduct and claims: Deși era celebru, a rămas un om modest.^[2][3]
2. Small, of little value or importance, without splendour: o casă modestă; of sums and prices, low.^[2][3]

Word family

• modestie

Related words

• mod
• modera

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 665
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. 2, 39
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. modest
5. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 825
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. modest
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. modestus
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. modeste
9. ^ 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. modest
10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 109