penal

Forms

penal m or n (feminine singular penală, masculine plural penali, feminine/neuter plural penale)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin poenālis (“of punishment, penal”), with French pénal as a second model: the dictionaries name both, the Latin and the French.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Romanian dictionaries often give two sources like this for the legal and learned vocabulary of the 19th century.^[2][5]

The Latin adjective is formed from poena (“punishment, penalty”) with the suffix -ālis.^[6][1] It belonged above all to the language of the Roman jurists.^[7] French took it from Latin as a legal term, first recorded in the feminine poinale about 1200.^[8] Scriban refers the reader to punibil.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in I. Golescu's Condica limbii rumânești, a dictionary left in manuscript about 1832.^[3][4][10] The sense was already the legal one, “relating to punishment under the law”.^[4] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms of 1848 explains it as “that which subjects one to a punishment” and gives lege penală “penal law” as its example.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed a legal term: a law or a provision that punishes offences, and in set phrases the branch of law that deals with them (drept penal), the code that defines offences and their penalties (cod penal), a criminal trial (proces penal) and a punishable act (fapt penal).^[2][3][10] The code was first called condică penală or codice penal, phrases the DLR marks as obsolete.^[10][3] Used as a neuter noun, penal means criminal law itself, as in Sadoveanu's “the most famous lawyer of the day in criminal law”.^[10][12]

In recent slang the adjective has been applied to things judged disastrous and to people judged contemptible;^[13] Dimitrescu's dictionary of new words cites examples from the press of 2003.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1832 – the first record, in I. Golescu's dictionary in manuscript.^[3][4]
• 1848 – explained in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[11]
• 1860 – codice penal “penal code” in a calendar.^[10]
• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary defines it by pedeapsă “punishment” and French pénal.^[14]
• 1886 – Barcianu gives codicele penal and lege penală with German equivalents.^[15]
• 2003 – slang penal “dreadful, contemptible” in the press.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. penal, criminal: relating to offences and to the prosecution and punishment of offenders; of a law or provision, punitive in character: drept penal “criminal law”, cod penal “penal code”, proces penal “criminal trial”, fapt penal “criminal offence”, sancțiune penală “penalty under the criminal law”.^[2][3][16]
2. clauză penală: a penalty clause, a clause by which the parties to a contract agree in advance what the debtor owes the creditor if he fails to perform.^[2][3]
3. (slang) Dreadful, beneath criticism; of people, contemptible.^[13]

Noun

1. (neuter) criminal law as a branch of law: Avocatul lucrează în penal. “The lawyer works in criminal law.”^[10][5]

Related words

• penalitate
• punibil
• Latin poena

Usage notes

A separate neuter noun penal is a variant of penar “pencil case”.^[3][10]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 798
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, 335
4. ^ 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. penál
5. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. penál
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. poenālis
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. poenalis
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. pénal
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 960
10. ^ 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. penál
11. ^ 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. penal
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 376
13. ^ a b c d Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. penál
14. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 271
15. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 467
16. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. penal