păgân

Forms

păgân m or n (feminine singular păgână, masculine plural păgâni, feminine/neuter plural păgâne)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin pāgānus (“heathen”), the Christian sense of Latin pāgānus (“of the country, villager”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The Latin word is formed on pāgus (“country district”).^[7]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian pãngãn and Megleno-Romanian păngǫn.^[2][8][9] Its Romance cognates are Italian pagano, Spanish pagano, Catalan pagà, French païen and Portuguese pagão; Albanian pëgërë (“dirty”) is a loan from the same Latin word.^[2][1]

The doublet pogan “pagan; vile” comes from Old Church Slavonic поганъ (poganŭ), itself from the Latin word.^[2][5] Ciorănescu holds that the Romanian word cannot come from Slavonic, as Miklosich and Cihac claimed, and thinks it somewhat possible that the Slavonic word came from Romanian.^[2] The verb pângări “to defile” is formed on it.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a document of 1496 published by Iorga.^[5] In Romanian texts it first appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, of the early 16th century: „Scoase de la fața lor păgânii” “he drove out the heathen before them”.^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

From the 16th century the word meant a worshipper of idols or of false gods, and for Christians anyone of another faith.^[10][3] In the old chronicles it usually meant the Turks: Ureche writes of the prince who ransomed the fortresses the heathen had taken.^[10][4] Popular usage applied it to all non-Orthodox peoples.^[11]

A moral sense, a cruel and wicked person, grew from the religious one, and the adjective came to mean savage, terrible.^[3][1] MDA2 also lists “of Greco-Roman antiquity”.^[4] The old texts also have the form pogan, after Slavonic.^[5]

Timeline

• 1496 – first record, in a document published by Iorga.^[5]
• c. 1500–1520 – păgânii “the heathen” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[4][10]
• c. 1563–1583 – păgânilor in the Codicele Voronețean.^[10]
• 1640 – the form pogan in the Pravila of Govora.^[5]
• 1688 – „În calea păgânilor să nu meargeți” “go not into the way of the Gentiles” in the Bucharest Bible (Matthew 10:5).^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who worships gods or idols; a pagan, heathen; for Christians, a person of another religion, especially a Turk or Muslim.^[3][1]
2. A person with no religion or not baptized; an atheist.^[3]
3. A person who strays from Christian dogma; a heretic.^[3]
4. (figurative) A cruel, pitiless person.^[3][1]

Adjective

1. Belonging to the worship of idols or gods;^[3][1] (especially) Turkish.^[3][1]
2. (figurative) Savage, fierce, dreadful.^[3]

Word family

• păgânătate
• păgânime
• păgânism
• păgânesc
• păgânește
• pângări

Related words

• pogan
• Aromanian pãngãn

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. păgân
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 786
4. ^ 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, 292
5. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. păgân
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6141
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 858
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 799
10. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. păgân
11. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 454