popor

Forms

popor n (plural popoare)^[1]

Etymology

Pușcariu, the REW, Tiktin and MDA2 take it as inherited from Latin populus (“people”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Its Romance cognates include Italian popolo, Catalan poble, Occitan poble, French peuple, Spanish pueblo and Portuguese povo.^[2][3]

Its status as an inherited word is doubtful.^[2] Ciorănescu thinks it looks like a learned word, at least in the senses “a people” and “the common people”, and that contact with Italian and French in the 19th century strengthened it in any case.^[2] Wiktionary adds that its stress on the last syllable sets it apart from the Romance cognates.^[1] Șăineanu thought the old language did not know it, the popular word being norod, and took it as a Romanisation after the Italian word.^[6] Tiktin compares the Italian and Spanish words in the sense “parish” and suggests a borrowing from Italian.^[4] DEX only compares the Latin and Italian words.^[7] The DLR derives the old variant popol from Italian and popul from Latin.^[8] Papahagi derives the Aromanian word popul from Italian too.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1525.^[4] The earliest sense is religious: the congregation of a church or parish, in relation to its priest.^[8][5][4] A text of about 1570 rules that if the faithful are not with their priest, „poporul să cheme alt popă” “let the parish call another priest”.^[8] MDA2 gives the Psaltirea Scheiană (about 1573–1578) as its first record.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the congregation the word passed to the parish itself, a sense still in Klein's dictionary of 1801, which glosses it with Latin populus and parochia.^[8][10] The sense “a people, a nation” is in use from Dosoftei on.^[4] Later senses are “the common people, the masses” (un om din popor “a man of the people”) and, figuratively, “a crowd, a swarm”: Eminescu writes of popoare de muște “nations of flies”.^[7][6] The old phrase a umbla în popor meant that a priest went from house to house with the blessing on the eve of Epiphany.^[8][5]

The derivative poporan “parishioner” appears in a Moldavian document of 1631, and Ciorănescu thinks it may be inherited from Latin populānus.^[2] Popula and popular are 19th-century loans from Latin and French.^[2]

Timeline

• 1525 – the first record cited by Tiktin.^[4]
• c. 1570 – poporul “the congregation” in a church text.^[8]
• c. 1573–1578 – the Psaltirea Scheiană, MDA2's first record.^[5]
• 1631 – poporenii “the parishioners” in a Moldavian document.^[2]
• 1645 – popoarăle “the parishes” of priests.^[8][4]
• 1801 – Klein glosses Popór with Latin populus and parochia.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A people: a historical community, larger than the tribe and earlier than the nation, whose members share a territory, a language and a culture.^[7]
2. All the inhabitants of a country, the citizens of a state; a nation;^[7][5] (dated) the population of a town, village or district.^[7][5]
3. The great mass of a country's population, the common people; especially the peasantry;^[7] din popor “of humble origin”.^[7]
4. A large number of people gathered in one place, a crowd.^[7]
5. (dated) The faithful of one church or parish; the parish.^[7][5]

Word family

• poporan
• poporime
• împopora
• popora
• poporație

Related words

• Latin populus

Usage notes

The plural is popoare; the old texts also have popoară.^[4][7] The variants popol and popul are old.^[7][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. popor
3. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6654
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. popor
5. ^ 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, 468
6. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 496
7. ^ 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. 849
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. popor
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 872
10. ^ a b 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. 421