orfan

Forms

orfan m or n (feminine singular orfană, masculine plural orfani, feminine/neuter plural orfane)^[1] The regional variant urfan is in MDA2.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Modern Greek ορφανός (orfanós), with borrowed from Latin orphanus named as a second source by MDA2, DEX and the DLR.^{[3][2][4][5][1]} Ciorănescu, after Cihac and Gáldi, takes it from Modern Greek;^[3][6][7] Tiktin names Greek and Italian as its sources.^[3][6][7]

An older inherited word stands beside it: oarfăn, recorded in Transylvania in 1830 in the sense “poor”, is inherited from the Latin word.^[8][9][3] It survives south of the Danube as Aromanian oarfãn “orphan; poor”.^[10][11][7] Pascu explains the sense “poor” by the influence of Latin orbus.^[11] The Latin word lives on in Italian orfano, Sardinian órfanu, Old French orfene, Catalan orfe, Spanish huérfano and Portuguese órfão.^[12][3] Wiktionary says that the borrowing has largely replaced the inherited word.^[1]

The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanós, “without parents, fatherless”), spread by the Church.^[1][13] The Greek word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos (“orphan”), the source of the Latin adjective too.^[1][14][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record of orfan to 1761.^[7] MDA2's first record is a document of 1817 in the Uricariul, which asks parents to attend to the tender age of the orphans: „frăgezimea vrăstei orfanilor”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its sense, a person, usually a child, who has lost one or both parents, used as an adjective and as a noun.^[4][2] It took the place of older Romanian words: Tiktin notes that sărac was used for “orphan” before it, and MDA2 still gives sărac and sărman as regional synonyms.^[7][2] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 lists it among the neologisms.^[16]

In Moldavia and Bukovina the word also meant an illegitimate child.^[2][7] A figurative sense, “lacking something”, is in DEX.^[4] Ciorănescu lists the derivatives orfanotrofiu “orphanage”, from Byzantine Greek, used in the 17th century, and orfelinat, from French.^[3]

Timeline

• 1761 – first record of orfan.^[7]
• 1817 – orfanilor “of the orphans” in a document in the Uricariul.^[2][5]
• 1830 – the inherited oarfăn “poor” in a Transylvanian text.^[8]
• 1848 – listed by Negulici.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Orphaned: having lost one or both parents;^[4][17][1] orfan de mamă motherless.^[4][17][1]
2. (figurative) Deprived of something.^[4][1]

Noun

1. An orphan, a child without parents.^[4][2][1]
2. (Moldavia, Bukovina) An illegitimate child.^[2][7]
3. A person who has no family.^[2]

Word family

• orfanotrofiu
• orfelinat

Related words

• oarfăn
• Aromanian oarfãn
• sărac

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 223
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. orfan
4. ^ 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. 749
5. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. orfan
6. ^ a b Gáldi, Ladislas (1939), Les mots d'origine néo-grecque en roumain à l'époque des Phanariotes, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, p. 215
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. orfán
8. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 180
9. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. oarfăn
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 803
11. ^ a b Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 135
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6105
13. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 1058
16. ^ 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. orfan
17. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. orfan