profet

Forms

profet m (plural profeți)^[1] Old variants are profit and profeta.^[2] The feminine is profeteasă (Scriban) or profetesă (Tiktin).^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French prophète.^[2][5] MDA2 and the neologism dictionaries also name Latin prophēta.^[2][5] DEX and Wiktionary name French alone,^[6][1] and Tiktin adds Italian profeta.^[4]

The French word was borrowed about 980 from Christian Latin, where it is from Ancient Greek προφήτης (prophḗtēs, “interpreter of a god”), from πρό (pró, “before”) and φημί (phēmí, “to say”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1825, in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[4] MDA2 cites a work of Golescu without a date.^[2] The older Romanian word for a prophet is proroc, which MDA2 and DEX give as its synonym.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Besides the biblical prophet, the word was used early as a title of Mahomed among Muslims;^[3][8] Scriban speaks of unfurling “the Prophet's banner”.^[3][8] A figurative sense, someone who announces what is to come, appears in Eminescu's line on Mureșanu, “semnelor vremii profet” “prophet of the signs of the times”.^[8][9] The saying nimeni nu e profet în țara lui “no one is a prophet in his own country” is used of someone who finds little credit among his own people.^[2][9]

Several members of the family are older than the noun: profeție is recorded in Cantemir in 1704.^[2] The verb profeți, formed on the noun, is in the same 1825 dictionary, and profetic (1837) and profetiza (1848) were taken from French.^[2]

Timeline

• 1704 – profeție “prophecy” in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[2]
• 1825 – profet in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[4]
• 1825 – the verb profeți, in the same dictionary.^[2]
• 1837 – profetic in Săulescu's chronology.^[2]
• 1848 – profet and profetiza in Negulici's vocabulary.^[10][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A prophet: a religious preacher held to be sent by God to receive and interpret his word and visions; a proroc.^[6][2]
2. (with the article) Profetul, the Prophet: the name Muslims give to Mahomed.^[6][2]
3. A visionary whose forecasts may come true or have come true.^[6][11]

Word family

• profeteasă
• profeți

Related words

• profeție
• profetic
• profetiza
• proroc
• French prophète

Usage notes

Nimeni nu e profet în țara lui “no one is a prophet in his own country”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 562
3. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1059
4. ^ 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. profet
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. profet
6. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 881
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 516
9. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 592
10. ^ 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. profet
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. profet