politicos

Forms

politicos m or n (feminine singular politicoasă, masculine plural politicoși, feminine/neuter plural politicoase)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Modern Greek πολιτικός (politikós).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Scriban glosses the Greek word as “political” as well as “polite, courteous”.^[6] It continues Ancient Greek πολιτικός (politikós), recorded from the 5th century BC, from πολίτης (polítēs, “citizen”) with the suffix -ικός (-ikós); through Latin politicus it spread to many European languages.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and MDA2 date the first record to 1780, in the second book of a manuscript Romanian translation of Oxenstierna's Thoughts.^[5][3] Tiktin's oldest sense is “statesmanlike”: Ienăchiță Văcărescu's history calls Sultan Mehmed II „foarte viteaz și politicos” “very brave and statesmanlike”.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The old sense, “skilled in governing”, is now obsolete.^[4][6][3] By the 1830s the word meant “polite, courteous”: a text of 1838 advises being as gallant and polite in words as possible, and Russo, Maiorescu and Caragiale use it in this sense.^[4] Scriban contrasts the two senses as old and modern.^[6] It is also used as an adverb, “politely”, as in Ghica and Caragiale.^[4][5] The negative nepoliticos is in Alecsandri.^[5] The ironic phrase politicos ca gardul “as polite as a fence” means very rude.^[4]

Timeline

• 1780 – the first record, in the translation of Oxenstierna.^[5][3]
• 1838 – the sense “polite” in a text quoted by the DLR.^[4]
• 1893–1895 – Damé translates it as French poli, courtois.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. polite, courteous, well-mannered: Vânzătorul a fost foarte politicos cu noi.^[2][3][1]
2. Showing politețe: un răspuns politicos.^[2][3]
3. (obsolete, rare) Skilled in statecraft, having the qualities of a good political leader.^[4][3]
4. (adverbial) Politely: A salutat politicos și a ieșit.^[4][5]

Word family

• nepoliticos

Related words

• politic
• politețe

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 845
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 455
4. ^ 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. politicos
5. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. politicos
6. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1011
7. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 1190
8. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. 2