regal

Forms

regal m or n (feminine singular regală, masculine plural regali, feminine/neuter plural regale)^[1] The noun has the plural regaluri, also regale.^[2] An old form rigal, shaped after rigă “king”, appears in 1832: „flota rigală” “the royal fleet”.^[3][4]

Etymology

The adjective is borrowed from French régale, with Italian regale and Latin rēgālis (“royal”) named as models as well: DEX and MDA2 give all three, DLR French and Latin, Tiktin Italian, French and Latin.^[2][4][3][5] Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing from Latin, matching rege with the suffix -al on the surface.^[1] The Latin adjective is formed on rēx (“king”) with -ālis.^[6]

The noun “feast” is borrowed from French régal.^[3][4][1] DEX puts it under the adjective with the same sources, and Dimitrescu names Italian regalo (“gift”) beside French for its modern sense of a treat.^[2][7] The French noun was first Old French rigale (1310) and is usually derived from gale (“rejoicing”), with its first syllable taken from rigoler (“to make merry”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record of the adjective is in Șincai's Hronica, about 1812, in the sense “royal”.^[5] MDA2's first record is the Curierul Românesc of 1832, with the form rigală.^[4][3] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 defines it as “of a king” and, as an adverb, “pompously, as of a king”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From “belonging to a king” the adjective widened to what is worthy of a king: rich, luxurious, majestic.^[2][4] Chemistry took apă regală “aqua regia” for the mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids that dissolves gold and platinum.^[2][10] The noun “rich feast” was rare and literary;^[3][4] Caragiale, after praising a soup, hoped to be served „un adevărat regal” “a real feast”.^[3][4] In the later 20th century the noun came to mean an event or performance that delights, as when the press praised a television programme for children as a „regal” in 1976.^[7][2]

Timeline

• c. 1812 – the adjective “royal” in Șincai's Hronica.^[5]
• 1832 – rigală in the Curierul Românesc.^[4][3]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[9]
• 1976 – the noun “a treat”, of a television programme.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. royal: belonging or relating to a king; regesc: palatul regal.^[2][4][1]
2. By extension, regal, rich, luxurious or majestic.^[2][4]
3. In the phrase apă regală, aqua regia, a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acid that attacks the noble metals.^[2][4]

Noun

1. (literary) A rich feast; a festive banquet.^[2][3][1]
2. An event that delights; a great pleasure or a delightful gift: Spectacolul de aseară a fost un regal.^[2][7]

Related words

• rege
• regesc
• rigă
• regalitate

Usage notes

A separate word regal (DEX regal¹, plural regale) is a printing term: a small cabinet in the hand-composing room where the type cases are kept.^[2][4] It is German Regal (“shelf”), recorded in Romanian from Șăineanu's dictionary of 1896.^[2][11][4] The German word is first found in 1634 as a printer's word for the rack of type cases, and its origin is not settled.^[12][13] A feminine noun regală, a beer glass smaller than a țap, is now obsolete.^[4][10]

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 DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 935
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. regal
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 678
5. ^ 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. regal
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. regal
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ 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. regal
10. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună
11. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. regal
12. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
13. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter