primar

Forms

primar m or n (feminine singular primară, masculine plural primari, feminine/neuter plural primare)^[1] Older and regional texts have premar and premare: „Sintem veri premari celui dus de lume” “we are first cousins of the departed” (early 17th century).^[2][3] A popular form of the noun is primare.^[4]

Etymology

The old adjective is inherited from Latin prīmārius (“one of the first; principal”).^[5][3][6][1] Candrea and Densusianu explain the vowel /i/ of the first syllable, where the old ⟨premar⟩ shows the regular /e/, by the influence of prim.^[7] Aromanian keeps primar in the same phrase for a first cousin, and Old Italian has primaio; the other Romance descendants include French premier, Spanish primero and Portuguese primeiro.^[5][6]

Ciorănescu treats the word as inherited in its first sense; the sense “mayor” was imposed with the office in 1874 and is supported by French maire (“mayor”).^[5] Tiktin likewise derives the senses “primary, basic” and the noun only indirectly from Latin, comparing the French word.^[8] For DN the modern adjective is borrowed from French primaire, compared with Latin and Italian primario, and the noun from Latin after the French noun.^[9] MDN gives Latin and French for both, DEX gives Latin and compares both French words, and MDA2 makes a second headword from Latin and French.^[10][4][3] Wiktionary calls the modern senses semantic borrowings, and Gabinschi a new meaning given to the inherited word.^[1][11] Scriban thought that the noun was coined around 1848, perhaps by Kogălniceanu, under the influence of mare and the French noun.^[12] The French adjective is itself a learned borrowing of 1789 from the Latin one.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578), where the adjective means “former”: „Nu pomeni ale noastre fărădelegi primari” “do not remember our former iniquities” (Psalm 78:8).^[8][3][2]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “first, earlier” fell out of use, and the inherited word survived only in two phrases: văr primar and vară primară “first cousin”, and cale primară, the first visit of the newly-weds to the bride's parents a few days after the wedding.^[7][3] Cihac knew this visit from Transylvania, and DLR quotes it from a document of 1816 and in Creangă.^[14][2]

From about 1800 the learned sense “of the first rank, basic” appears, first in Budai-Deleanu's Țiganiada.^[2][3] Terms followed for the first degree of schooling (școală primară), for a senior hospital physician (medic primar), for the first-magnitude stars and for the Palaeozoic era.^[2][12][4] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 has the noun for the head of a municipal body.^[15] The office gave primărie “town hall”, primăreasă “mayor's wife” and primariat “mayoralty”, and the press of the 1970s primăriță “woman mayor”.^[5][16] In slang the noun names a first-time convict, or a customer who leaves no tip.^[17][5]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – primari “former” in the Psaltirea Scheiană, the first record.^[3][8]
• early 17th century – veri premari “first cousins”.^[2]
• 1660 – primar in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, for a first cousin.^[18]
• c. 1800–1812 – dregătorii primare “chief offices” in Budai-Deleanu's Țiganiada, the first learned sense.^[2][3]
• 1816 – calea primare, the newly-weds' first visit.^[2]
• 1870 – the noun “mayor” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[15]
• 1874 – the noun is established with the office.^[5]
• 1972 – primăriță “woman mayor” in the press.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. primary, initial, original; of the first degree or importance, basic.^[4][3]
2. In văr primar and vară primară: first cousin.^[4][3]
3. In învățământ primar and școală primară: elementary (education), the first four school years.^[4]
4. In medic primar: a physician of the grade above specialist, reached by examination.^[4][3]
5. (geology) In era primară: the Palaeozoic.^[4]
6. Simple, rudimentary, undeveloped.^[4]
7. (chemistry) Having a single valency satisfied by a given element or radical.^[4]
8. (obsolete) Earlier, former.^[3][8]

Noun

1. A mayor: the head of a municipal, town or commune administration.^[4][2]
2. (slang) A first-time convict; among barbers, a customer who leaves no tip.^[17]

Word family

• primărie
• primăreasă
• primariat
• primăriță

Related words

• prim
• Aromanian primar
• Latin prīmārius

Usage notes

Cale primară, the first visit of the young couple to the bride's parents, is regional.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. primar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 538
4. ^ 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. 874
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. primar
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6749
7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
8. ^ 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. primar
9. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. primar
10. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. primar
11. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 146
12. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1049
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. primaire
14. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 217
15. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 355
16. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. primar
17. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. primar
18. ^ 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. primar