primărie

Forms

primărie f (plural primării)^[1] A regional variant premărie appears in Petică's prose: „Voiau să intre în premărie, că cică premăria e a lor acu” “they wanted to get into the town hall, because they said the town hall was theirs now”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian primar + -ie, from the noun for “mayor”.^{[3][4][2][5][1][6]} Scriban also names French mairie as a model.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Costinescu's dictionary of 1870, with the senses “mayor's office, town council” and “town hall”.^[5] The earliest quotation in the DLR is from a poem by Dimitrie Bolintineanu, who asks under what foreign occupation loans and even a lottery are made „-n primărie” “in the town hall”;^[2][3] MDA2 dates it by the edition of 1951.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word names the institution headed by a mayor and the building where it sits, and by extension the officials who work there.^[3][4] The DLRLC of the 1950s placed it in “the old administrative organisation”, while the DEX of 2009 defines it again as a present-day institution.^[8][4] A rare sense is the office or term of a mayor, otherwise primariat.^[7][4] Colloquially it can stand jokingly for the mayor himself, as in Delavrancea's „Suge, primărie, suge” “suck it up, town hall”.^[5] MDA2 records a regional sense “a lawsuit heard at the town hall”.^[3] In thieves' slang it is the inside pocket of a jacket.^[9]

Timeline

• 1870 – first record, in Costinescu's dictionary.^[5]
• 1886 – Barcianu translates it as German Ortsamt, Bürgermeisteramt.^[10]
• 1929 – Șăineanu defines it as the building of the municipal administration.^[11]
• 1939 – Scriban gives the sense “office and term of a mayor”.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The local government body of a municipality, town or commune, headed by a primar.^[4][3]
2. The building where this body has its seat; town hall, city hall: Ne vedem în fața primăriei.^[4][3][1]
3. The staff of a town hall.^[3]
4. (rare) The office or term of a mayor; primariat.^[4][7]
5. (slang) The inside pocket of a jacket.^[9]

Related words

• primariat
• French mairie

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. primărie
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 539
4. ^ 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. 875
5. ^ 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. primărie
6. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1050
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 569
9. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. primărie
10. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 506
11. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 511