prădător

Forms

prădător m (plural prădători, feminine equivalent prădătoare)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian prăda (“to plunder”) + -ător.^[2][3][4] Ciorănescu also thinks an internal derivative more probable.^[5] Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and REW took it straight from Latin, from Latin praedātor (“plunderer”) or praedātōrius, and Wiktionary gives both explanations.^[5][6][7][1] The Latin noun is formed from the verb for “to plunder” with the suffix -tor.^[8][1]

The verb is formed from pradă “booty”, from Latin praeda, though it may also continue the Latin verb directly.^[5] Italian predatore and Occitan prezador continue the Latin noun.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and MDA2 date the first record to the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578); Tiktin cites Psalm 136:3.^[4][3] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use it to gloss Slavonic плѣнитель “captor”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the word was used of people and armies that plunder, above all in war, and MDA2 records an obsolete sense “one who enslaves”.^[3] It then meant a thief or a greedy, rapacious person.^[3][10] In regional speech it also means “spendthrift”, a sense Tiktin notes from Maramureș; a folk song pairs beutor și prădător “a drunkard and a waster”.^[4][11] DEX 2009 adds the zoological sense, a carnivorous animal that hunts live prey, which is missing from DEX 1998.^[2][10]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană, the first record.^[3][4]
• 1660 – glosses Slavonic плѣнитель “captor” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary has pradatóriu, glossed with Latin praedator, spoliator.^[12]
• 1998 – DEX defines it as “plunderer, robber” and “spendthrift”.^[10]
• 2009 – DEX adds the sense “predatory animal”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rare) A plunderer, robber; one who loots.^[2][3]
2. (regional) A spendthrift.^[2][3]
3. A predator: a carnivorous animal that hunts and catches live prey.^[2]

Adjective

1. predatory: of an animal, hunting live prey.^[2]
2. (dated) Plundering, rapacious.^[3][4]

Related words

• prăda
• pradă
• Latin praedātor

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 860
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, 500
4. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. prădător
5. ^ a b c 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. pradă
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6717
7. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 233
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. prădător
10. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan” (1998), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, 2nd ed., București: Univers Enciclopedic, p. 835
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 532
12. ^ 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. 423