pedeapsă

Forms

pedeapsă f (plural pedepse or (obsolete) pedepsi or pedeapse or (regional) pedepsuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Romanian pedepsi (“to punish”).^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of the verb, comparing Modern Greek παίδευσις (paídefsis);^[5] Scriban and Șăineanu took the noun straight from that Greek word, which meant “education, instruction”.^[5][6][7]

The verb pedepsi comes from Byzantine Greek παιδεύω (paideúō, “to bring up, teach; to chastise”), through its aorist ἐπαίδεψα (epaídepsa).^[5][3][1] The verb also survives south of the Danube: Aromanian pidipsescu and Megleno-Romanian pidipsés.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the noun to about 1507, and Wiktionary to 1581.^[8][1] Its first sense was “upbringing, education”: a text of 1652 says of a young man that „de pedeapsă și de bunătate ce avea” “for the education and goodness he had” he was made a boyar of the palace.^[2][8][3]

Semantic evolution

The meaning followed the verb, which meant first “to teach, to bring up” and then “to chastise, punish”.^[5][3] Ciorănescu compares the shift in Old French chastier, which also meant “to instruct”.^[5] The old sense of education was still alive in Cantemir: „nici din pedeapsă și din învățătură vreo vrednicie are” “he has no merit from upbringing or learning”.^[2][8] A text of 1713 says that the poor man is not the one without a father but the one „ce n-are învățătură și bună pedeapsă” “who has no learning and good upbringing”.^[2]

Șăineanu explained the change by the idea of punishment as a lesson meant to correct.^[7] The modern senses are a sanction for a wrong, the penalty imposed by a court, and figuratively a hardship or misfortune, as in pedeapsa lui Dumnezeu.^[4][6]

Timeline

• c. 1507 – the first record, according to Tiktin.^[8]
• 1581 – the first record, according to Wiktionary.^[1]
• 1652 – pedeapsă “upbringing, education”.^[2][3]
• 1688 – pedeapsă in the Bucharest Bible.^[9]
• 1713 – bună pedeapsă “good upbringing”.^[2]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses pedeapsă with Latin poena “punishment”.^[10]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda has pedeapsă “punishment” with phrases such as de pedeapsă “penal”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. punishment: a measure taken against someone who has done wrong; in law, a penalty or sentence imposed by a court for an offence: pedeapsă capitală “capital punishment”.^[4][12][1]
2. (figurative) Suffering of body or mind, torment; a misfortune.^[4][1]
3. (obsolete) Upbringing, education, instruction.^[3][2][1]

Related words

• pedepsi
• pedepsitor
• Byzantine Greek παιδεύω (paideúō)

Usage notes

The plural is pedepse; older texts also have pedepsi and pedeapse, and regional speech pedepsuri.^[3][1] Regional variants include pedeacsă, pedeasă and pideapsă.^[3][5]

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 Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pedeapsă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 331
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 796
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. pedepsi
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 957
7. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 472
8. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. pedeapsă
9. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 2 Maccabees 7:33
10. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 415
11. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 492
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. pedeapsă