prinț

Forms

prinț m (plural prinți, feminine equivalent prințesă)^[1] An older form prens, after French prince, occurs figuratively in Critil: „[Amăgirea] este prensul de obște nu numai a oamenilor, ce și a dobitoacelor” “deception is the common prince not only of men but also of beasts”.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Prinz, borrowed from French prince: these are the two sources Ciorănescu, DEX and the neologism dictionaries name.^{[3][4][5][6][1]} Tiktin gives German alone; the DLR and MDA2 add borrowed from Russian принц (princ), and Scriban took the word from Russian, which had it from German.^[7][2][8][9] The old form prens comes from French.^[2] The German word was borrowed in the 13th century from the French word, which goes back to Latin princeps (“first, foremost; prince”).^[10]

It is a doublet of principe, which came from Italian principe.^[3] The feminine prințesă is from princesse and Prinzessin.^[3] Aromanian has the same word from French: Aromanian printsu.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and the DLR date the first record to 1787, in the preface of the Rânduiala judecătorească, which names Joseph II “great prince of Transylvania”.^[7][2] MDA2 cites the same text.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the late 18th and early 19th century the word named foreign rulers and heirs: Șincai writes of Peter III, prințul Țării Muntenești, and a calendar of 1794 calls Pavel Petrovici mare prinț și moștenitor “grand prince and heir”.^[2] It became the usual title of the ruler of a principality and of members of princely, royal or imperial families, and of anyone who bears that title.^[8][2] From this come prinț consort and prinț moștenitor “crown prince”.^[12]

Figuratively the word names the first among others, as in prințul filozofilor “the prince of philosophers” for Aristotle in Caragiale.^[2] The phrase a trăi ca un prinț means to live in great comfort.^[4][8]

Timeline

• 1787 – prinț in the Rânduiala judecătorească, the first record.^[7][2]
• 1794 – mare prinț și moștenitor in a calendar.^[2]
• 1820 – prințul Saxoniei in another calendar.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A prince: the title of the ruler of a principality and of members of princely, royal or imperial families; a person who bears this title.^[8][4][1]
2. (figurative) The first or greatest of a kind: prințul poeților.^[2]

Word family

• prințesă

Related words

• principe
• principat
• Aromanian printsu
• German Prinz

Usage notes

A trăi ca un prinț “to live like a prince” means to live in plenty.^[4][8] The word is a near synonym of principe, which DEX gives as its definition.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. prinț
3. ^ 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. prinț
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 876
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
7. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. prinț
8. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 547
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1052
10. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
11. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 880
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 578