musulman

Forms

musulman m (plural musulmani), feminine musulmană (plural musulmane); also an adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French musulman.^[1][3][4][2] Tiktin gives Modern Greek μουσουλμάνος (mousoulmános) beside the French word,^[5] and Scriban lists Turkish, Greek, Russian and French parallels.^[6]

French took the word in the 16th century, directly or through Ottoman Turkish مسلمان (müslüman), from Persian مسلمان (mosalmân), which is مُسْلِم (muslim, “Muslim”) with the Persian plural ending of nouns for persons; in Arabic it is the active participle of the verb meaning “to submit (to God's will)”, whose action noun is إِسْلَام (islām).^[7][2] The same Turkish and Persian word reached Romanian earlier as busurman, which Scriban calls the old form and Gabinschi treats as its doublet.^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is of 1783, in a text printed in Gaster's chrestomathy, in the vocative: „O musulmane, priiatene! Îți mărturisesc o mare datorie” “O Muslim, my friend! I confess to you a great debt”.^[4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word names a follower of Islam and, more narrowly, a Turk, and as an adjective “Muslim”, narrowly “Turkish”.^[3][4] The Lexicon de la Buda (1825) has musulmanu with Hungarian muzulmán, and refers the reader to mahomedanu.^[9] Costinescu (1870) explained that in the Muslims' own language the word means “right-believing”.^[10] In the 19th century it competed with mahomedan, with which the dictionaries still define it.^[1][4]

Timeline

• 1783 – first record, in a text printed in Gaster's chrestomathy.^[4][5]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[9]
• 1870 – in Costinescu's dictionary, as noun and adjective.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Muslim, a follower of Islam.^[1][3]
2. (narrowly, dated) A Turk.^[1][3]

Adjective

1. Muslim, belonging to Islam: lumea musulmană.^[1][3][4]
2. (narrowly, dated) Turkish.^[3]

Related words

• mahomedan
• busurman

References

1. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 685
2. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
3. ^ 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. 2, 84
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. musulman
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. musulman
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 845
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera
9. ^ 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.)
10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci