palid

Forms

palid m or n (feminine singular palidă, masculine plural palizi, feminine/neuter plural palide)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pallidus (“pale”), together with Italian pallido, a 19th-century neologism.^[2][3][4] Tiktin gives only the Italian word and Wiktionary takes it from Italian, while Scriban gives only the Latin.^[5][1][6] The Latin adjective is formed from palleō (“to be pale”) with the suffix -idus.^[7] The Italian word is a learned borrowing from Latin, recorded from before 1292.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1836, in Costache Negruzzi.^[5] The DLR's first quotation is from Gheorghe Asachi, of a pale face lit up by two beautiful blue eyes.^[3] The sense was “without colour in the face”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was of the face and, by extension, of a person with a colourless face.^[3][2] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 glossed it “yellow, sallow”.^[10] It was then said of a weak light without brightness and of colours of little intensity, and figuratively of a style or a work without vigour: Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 gives poesia este palidă “the poetry is pale”.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1836 – in Costache Negruzzi, the first record.^[5]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms, glossed “yellow, sallow”.^[10]
• 1870 – of colours and, figuratively, of a literary style, in Costinescu's dictionary.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the face: without colour, pale, sallow; of a person: pale in the face: S-a făcut palid când a auzit vestea.^[2][4]
2. Of light or a light source: weak, without brightness, dim.^[2][4]
3. Of colours: of little intensity, faded, washed out.^[2][4]
4. (figurative) Lacking vigour; dull, insipid.^[2][4]

Related words

• pal
• păli
• Latin pallidus
• Italian pallido

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 765
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. palid
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, 250
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. palid
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 924
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ 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. palid
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 232