principal

Forms

principal m or n (feminine singular principală, masculine plural principali, feminine/neuter plural principale)^[1] The old form is prințipal: „După acest nume prințipal aflăm numele sarmaților” “after this principal name we find the name of the Sarmatians” (Cantemir).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin prīncipālis (“first, chief”) and also borrowed from French principal: DLR names Latin, French and Italian principale, MDA2 these and German, DEX, MDN and DILF French and Latin, and Tiktin New Latin, also through other languages.^{[2][4][5][6][7][3]} Wiktionary takes it from French, which had it from Latin.^[1] The noun “person in charge” is borrowed from German Prinzipal according to DLR.^[2]

It was formed in Latin on prīnceps (“the first, the leader”) with the suffix -ālis.^[8][1] The German word, borrowed from Latin in the 16th century, means the owner or head of a business.^[9] The French word is a borrowing of 1080 from the Latin word.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1722, in Cantemir's Hronicul, where the word is written prințipal and glossed in the margin mai de frunte “foremost”.^[3][2] MDA2's date of 1901 is that of the Academy's edition of the chronicle.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The adjective spread in the 19th century in geography, mathematics and politics: puncte cardinale principale “cardinal points”, a fațada principală “main front” in Kogălniceanu.^[2] Negulici's vocabulary of 1848 glosses it as “of the first rank, most important”.^[11] In grammar, propoziție principală is the main clause on which the subordinate clauses depend, and fond principal de cuvinte was the term for the core vocabulary of a language.^[5][4]

Used as a noun, principalul “the main thing” is recorded by Șăineanu: uiți principalul “you forget the main thing”.^[12][2] The masculine noun “a person in charge, a master”, in Șincai and Barițiu, is now rare;^[2][13] Barcianu glossed it with German Handelsherr.^[2][13] Costinescu has principalii orașului “the leading men of the town”.^[14] The phrase în principal “mainly, above all” is frequent in the press from the 1970s.^[15][2]

Timeline

• 1722 – prințipal in Cantemir's Hronicul, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1848 – principal in Negulici's vocabulary of neologisms.^[11]
• 1870 – principalii orașului in Costinescu.^[14]
• 1886 – the noun “head of a business” in Barcianu.^[13]
• 1970 – în principal “mainly” in Scînteia.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. main, chief, principal: of special or of the greatest importance;^[5][16][1] intrarea principală “the main entrance”.^[5][16][1]
2. (grammar) In propoziție principală (also as a feminine noun, principală): the main clause of a sentence, on which the subordinate clauses depend.^[5]
3. In în principal: mainly, above all, in broad outline.^[6][4]

Noun

1. (neuter, articled) principalul: the main thing, what is essential.^[4][2]
2. (masculine, rare) A person who leads or manages something, a master.^[4][2]

Usage notes

DLR also records the rare old variants principale and prințipaleș.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. principal
3. ^ 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. principal
4. ^ 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, 543
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 876
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. principal
7. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. principal
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. principal
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 512
13. ^ a b c Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 506
14. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 356
15. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. principal
16. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. principal