onorabil

Forms

onorabil m or n (feminine singular onorabilă, masculine plural onorabili, feminine/neuter plural onorabile)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French honorable and Latin honōrābilis (“that confers honour”), the double source that DEX, DLR, MDA2 and the neologism dictionaries give.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} Tiktin names only the French word, as does Wiktionary,^[8][1] while Scriban derives it from Latin alone.^[9] Wiktionary adds that within Romanian it can be analysed as onora with the suffix -bil.^[1]

The French adjective was borrowed around 1125 from the Latin word, which is derived honōrō (“to honour”);^[10] The Latin adjective is formed from that verb with -bilis.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1839, in the works of Costache Negruzzi, with the sense “honourable, worthy of respect”.^[8] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms of 1848 explains it as “that does honour; that deserves honour”.^[13] MDA2 dates its first record to before 1853, in the Uricariul, where officials are said to oppress the villages “apart from a few honourable exceptions”.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th century the word was a courtesy title for persons and institutions: a document of 1848 addresses the “honourable princely lieutenancy”, and Caragiale's politicians open their speeches with “Onorabili concetățeni!”.^[3][14] Parliamentary speech used it for a fellow member, “the honourable previous speaker”.^[15] From this formal use came an ironic one, in which onorabilul mocks a self-important person;^[3][9] Scriban already found the title used mostly ironically.^[3][9] Both uses are now dated, and the word mainly describes conduct, a position or an outcome that brings no shame, often as an adverb.^[2][9]

Timeline

• 1839 – the first record, in Costache Negruzzi.^[8]
• 1848 – listed among the neologisms in Negulici's dictionary.^[13]
• 1848 – a courtesy title in an address to the princely lieutenancy.^[3]
• before 1853 – onorabile ecsepții “honourable exceptions” in the Uricariul.^[4][3]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses it with French honorable.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Worthy of honour and respect; honest, respectable; often used as an adverb, “honourably”.^[2][4][5]
2. (dated) A courtesy title given to a person or an institution, as in Caragiale's Onorabili concetățeni! “Honourable fellow citizens!”.^[3][14]
3. (ironic) Of a person: so-called worthy, self-important.^[3][14][9]

Related words

• onoare
• onora
• onorat
• Latin honōrābilis

Usage notes

The word occurs in the phrase amendă onorabilă.^[14][17] French has had amende honorable since 1549.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 743
3. ^ 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. onorabil
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 213
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
7. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria
8. ^ 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. onorabil
9. ^ a b c d e Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 901
10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
15. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 444
16. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 207
17. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească