războinic

Forms

războinic m or n (feminine singular războinică, masculine plural războinici, feminine/neuter plural războinice); as a noun, masculine, plural războinici.^[1][2] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the word was written рэзбойник.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic разбоиникъ (razboinikŭ, “robber, murderer”), the Old Church Slavonic word for a criminal, robber or murderer, which in the Gospels renders Ancient Greek λῃστής (lēistḗs).^{[3][4][2][1][5]} The Slavonic noun goes back to Proto-Slavic *orzbojьnikъ, a derivative of *arzbajь “robbery, assault”.^[1][6] Its cognates include Bulgarian разбойник (razbojnik, “robber, bandit”), Serbo-Croatian razbojnik (“outlaw, bandit”) and Russian разбойник (razbojnik, “highwayman, robber”).^[1][6] Scriban analysed the Slavonic word as a prefixed form of боиникъ (boinikŭ, “fighter”).^[7]

The Slavonic meaning “robber” is the old Romanian one; the senses “warrior” and “warlike” follow război “war”, from the same Slavonic family, with which speakers came to connect the word.^[3][1] Wiktionary notes that the word can now be analysed as from Romanian război + -nic.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581, where razboinicul is the robber crucified with Christ whom he took into paradise.^[3][8][4] The sense “robber” (also “murderer”) is the only one in the 16th- and 17th-century church texts: Dosoftei prays not to fall among robbers, „să nu cădem în tălhari... şi la războinici”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the word turned to war: a text of 1645 glosses a Greek word as războinicu “warrior”, and the chronicler Miron Costin calls Cantemir Bey „vestit războinic pe acele vremi” “a famous warrior in those times”.^[3][8] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 uses it as an adjective, „bărbații cei războinici” “the men of war”, translating Greek πολεμισταί (polemistaí).^[8][9] The old sense “robber” fell out of use;^[4][1] MDA2 and Wiktionary label it obsolete.^[4][1]

From the 19th century the noun is the usual literary word for a fighter or soldier, in Bălcescu, Alexandrescu, Coșbuc and Sadoveanu, and is also used figuratively (a gull as „războinicul furtunii” “the warrior of the storm”).^[3] The adjective means both “relating to war” and “fond of fighting”: Bălcescu wrote of a „nație războinică” “a warlike nation”.^[10]

Timeline

• 1581 – razboinicul “the robber” in Coresi's Carte de învățătură, the first record.^[3][8][4]
• 1645 – războinicu “warrior” in a translation of Herodotus.^[3]
• c. 1675 – vestit războinic “a famous warrior” in Miron Costin's chronicle.^[3][8]
• 1688 – the adjective, bărbații cei războinici “the men of war”, in the Bucharest Bible.^[8][9]
• 19th century – the noun “warrior” in Bălcescu, Bolliac and Alexandrescu.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A warrior, a fighter or soldier who takes part in a war: Războinicii s-au întors acasă după o lungă campanie.^[2][1]
2. (obsolete) A robber or outlaw; also a murderer.^[4][3][1]

Adjective

1. Relating to war, of war: cântece războinice.^[2][4]
2. warlike, fond of fighting; bătăios: un popor războinic.^[2][7]

Word family

• războinicesc
• războinicește
• războinicie

Related words

• război

Usage notes

The feminine noun războinică “woman warrior” is given by DEX 2009, which treats the noun as masculine and feminine.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 921
3. ^ 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. războinic
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 652
5. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
6. ^ a b Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 6, 149
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1102
8. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. războinic
9. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Deuteronomy 2:16
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 689