particular

Forms

particular m or n (feminine singular particulară, masculine plural particulari, feminine/neuter plural particulare)^[1] Older and popular forms include particolar, particulir, particolir and particulare.^[2] Caragiale gives a character the popular form particoler: „eu nu sînt cupeț, sînt particoler” “I am no shopkeeper, I am a private person”.^[2]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowed from Latin particulāris (“concerning a part”), with borrowed from German partikular, borrowed from Italian particolare, borrowed from French particulier as further models: DLR and MDA2 name all four sources.^[2][3] Scriban gives the Latin word alone, and NODEX Latin and German.^[4][5] Tiktin derives it from New Latin particularius, partly through other languages.^[6] Wiktionary takes it from Latin or from German, and notes that it can also be analysed within Romanian as particulă with the suffix -ar.^[1]

The Latin adjective is a postclassical word, formed on particula (“small part”) with the suffix -āris.^[7][1] That noun is a diminutive of pars (“part”).^[8][9] In Graur's list of this Latin family the word stands beside parte, the word Romanian inherited, and the loans parțial and partid.^[10] The French adjective was borrowed from Latin in 1265.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a document of 1712.^[6] MDA2 dates the word from the Rînduiala judecătorească printed at Vienna in 1787, where a case is called „pricină particulară de judecată”, a single case at law as opposed to the general rules.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The first senses were “belonging to one thing or person alone, specific” and “separate, individual”: 19th-century writers speak of a nation's particular laws, of a planet's particular motion and of a voice of one's own.^[2] The sense “private, unofficial” led to the noun “private person”: Leon Asachi explained a particular as someone living without an office or a boyar's rank.^[2] From 1829 the periodicals wrote of the property of particulari as against that of the state.^[2] Costinescu in 1870 glossed the noun with French particulier “private person”.^[12]

Schooling gave în particular “privately, outside school”: a pupil prepared în particular and sat his examinations as an external candidate.^[2][13] Scriban also records the senses “out of the ordinary” and “odd, strange”.^[4] In the philosophy of dialectical materialism the neuter noun became the name of a category between the singular and the general.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 1712 – the first record, in a document cited by Tiktin.^[6]
• 1787 – pricină particulară “a single case” in the Rînduiala judecătorească printed at Vienna.^[3][2]
• 1829 – the noun particulari “private persons” in a newspaper.^[2]
• 1848 – Negulici lists it among the new words, glossed with Latin privatus.^[14]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses the noun as a private person.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Belonging to a single being, thing or kind; specific, characteristic.^[13][3] În particular: in particular, especially.^[13]
2. Relating to separate individuals; individual.^[13][3] În particular: one by one, each for himself.^[13][3]
3. Personal and unofficial, not meant for the public; private, confidential.^[13][3] În particular: in a small circle, in confidence.^[13][3]
4. Of property: owned by an individual; of schools: not run by the state.^[13] Lecție particulară: a private lesson given outside school.^[13]

Noun

1. (masculine) A private person, one who holds no official post.^[2][12]
2. (neuter, philosophy) The particular, a category standing between the singular and the general.^[13][5]

Related words

• parte
• particulă
• particularitate
• Latin particularis

Usage notes

Viață particulară is private or family life.^[3] In the old school system a elev particular was a pupil who studied on his own and only came to sit the examinations.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. particular
3. ^ 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, 276
4. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 938
5. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. particular
6. ^ 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. particular
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. particolare
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 67
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. particulier
12. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 254
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 778
14. ^ 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. particular