nobil

Forms

nobil m or n (feminine singular nobilă, masculine plural nobili, feminine/neuter plural nobile)^[1] Older texts have noblu: Budai-Deleanu writes „Acuma, noblu este fieșcare” “now everyone is a nobleman”.^[2][3] MDA2 also lists the old variants nobl, noble and noablă.^[4] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 spells it nobbil.^[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin nōbilis (“known, famous; noble”), with the model of German nobel, Italian nobile and French noble, a case of the multiple etymology of Romanian lexicography.^{[2][4][6][7][8]} Ciorănescu takes it from Latin as a 19th-century word, Tiktin from Latin and French, and Wiktionary from Italian and Latin.^[9][10][1] The Latin adjective is formed on nōscō (“to get to know”) with the suffix -bilis, and old Latin also wrote gnōbilis.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1776, in a document published by Iorga.^[10] MDA2's first record is a law book printed in Vienna in 1787, the Rînduială judecătorească de obște, whose title page names the printer as „Iosif nobil de Kurțbek”.^[4][2] The first sense is the noun, a member of the nobility.^[2]

Semantic evolution

As a noun it names a nobleman, and in the Romanian setting a boyar: Budai-Deleanu mocks rulers who give out privileges, „făcându-i nobili prin o hârtie” “making them noblemen by a piece of paper”.^[2][4] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 glosses it with Latin vir nobilis, Hungarian nemes ember and German Edelmann.^[12] The moral sense was current by 1848, when Negulici illustrates the word with “the noblest revenge is forgiveness”.^[5] Costinescu in 1870 applies it to things, an air, a feeling or a style that stand above the ordinary.^[13] Technical uses followed: metal nobil “precious metal” and gaz nobil “noble gas”.^[14][6]

Timeline

• 1776 – first record, in a document published by Iorga.^[10]
• 1787 – the title of a law book printed in Vienna.^[4][2]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[12]
• 1848 – the moral sense in Negulici.^[5]
• 1870 – an air, a feeling or a style called noble in Costinescu.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. generous, honest, capable of high feelings; doing someone honour: un gest nobil “a noble gesture”.^[6][4][1]
2. Distinguished, elegant, graceful.^[6][7]
3. Superior in some quality: metal nobil “precious metal”, gaz nobil “noble gas”.^[6][14]
4. Belonging to the nobility, of high or old lineage.^[4][6]

Noun

1. A nobleman or noblewoman, an aristocrat; specifically, a boier.^[6][4][1]

Word family

• nobilime

Related words

• Latin nōbilis

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. nobil
3. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 216
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 161
5. ^ a b c 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. nobil
6. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 718
7. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. nobil
8. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. nobil
9. ^ 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. nobil
10. ^ 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. nobil
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. 447
13. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 178
14. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. nobil