panică

Forms

panică f (uncountable)^[1]

Etymology

It is a neologism that the dictionaries trace to several languages at once: DEX names borrowed from Modern Greek πανικός (panikós), French panique, Italian panico and German Panik as its sources.^[2][3][1] Tiktin and the DLR give only the Greek and the French word.^[4][5] The neologism dictionaries put French first, and Marcu adds Latin panicus.^[6][7]

The source of them all is Ancient Greek πανικός (panikós, “of Pan”), formed on the name of the god Πάν (Pā́n) with the suffix -ικός (-ikós).^[1][8] The sudden appearance of Pan was thought to cause terror, and Hellenistic and Late Greek already used the adjective of fear.^[8][9] French has the word from 1534, in Rabelais, as ⟨panice⟩, and German took the noun from French in the mid-19th century.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1793, in Ienăchiță Văcărescu's history, where it is an adjective: the Turks fled with the vizier „având o înfricoșare panică” “seized by a panic fear”.^[4][5] MDA2 cites the same passage as its first record.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The adjective was used of fear and terror, in phrases such as spaimă panică and teroare panică, the latter recorded by Negulici in 1848; the DLR marks it as obsolete.^[5] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 has the noun for a sudden fear without real cause, beside teroare panică modelled on French terreur panique, and notes that the ancients thought Pan inspired it.^[11]

The feminine was then used as a noun, “panic”: Bălcescu wrote of an unspeakable panic in Bucharest, and the noun is common in Caragiale, Rebreanu and Sadoveanu.^[5] The expression a intra în panică “to panic” is recorded in the DLR and DEX.^[5][2] Scriban explained the word by the god who frightened travellers lost in the mountains.^[12]

Timeline

• 1793 – the adjective in Ienăchiță Văcărescu's history, the first record.^[4][5]
• 1848 – teroare panică in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[5]
• 1870 – the noun in Costinescu's dictionary, defined as a sudden fear without real cause.^[11]
• 1929 – Șăineanu describes it as a term of mythological origin.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. panic: a sudden, violent fear that seizes a person or a crowd, often without good reason.^[2][14][1]
2. a intra în panică: to become alarmed, to be badly frightened.^[2][14]

Usage notes

The older adjective panic, feminine panică (o spaimă panică “a panic fear”), is obsolete;^[10][5] MDA2 and the DLR treat the noun under it.^[10][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 768
3. ^ 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. panică
4. ^ 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. panic
5. ^ 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. panic
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
7. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
8. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
10. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 256
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 238
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 927
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 458
14. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. panică