regizor

Forms

regizor m (plural regizori, feminine equivalent regizoare)^[1] Older texts spell it regisor, as in the first record of 1846 and in Caragiale: „sufler ți-am fost, regisor ți-am fost” “I have been your prompter, I have been your director”.^[2][3] MDA2 also records the spelling regissor and the stress regízor beside regizór.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French régisseur, with German Regisseur as a second model, as DEX, MDA2, DLR and the neologism dictionaries give it.^{[5][4][2][3][6]} Wiktionary names only the French word, and Șăineanu calls the Romanian form modelled on it.^[1][7] The French noun is formed on régir (“to govern, manage”) with the agent suffix -eur.^[1] German took Regie (“management, direction”) from French in the second half of the 18th century; the French verb goes back to Latin regō (“to rule, direct”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, of 1846, already has the theatre sense: „În Franța noi cunoaștem directorul, regisorul…, casierul” “In France we know the director, the stage manager…, the cashier”.^[2][4] Șăineanu still defined the word in 1929 as the person who runs a theatre company.^[7]

Semantic evolution

French régisseur is a steward or a stage manager, while German Regisseur is the director of a play or film.^[1] German used the related noun for the artistic direction of a theatre especially from Goethe's time on.^[8] Romanian has both senses: the specialist who directs plays and films, which is the main one, and a dated sense “steward of an estate”, which DEX labels obsolete and other dictionaries call a rare Gallicism.^[5][4][9] Eminescu already used the word figuratively, asking whether there is a director behind the scenes of life.^[10] In criminal slang a regizor is the head of a gang of burglars.^[11] The press since the 1960s has the compound regizor-actor, a director who also acts.^[12]

Timeline

• 1846 – regisor, a theatre's director, the first record.^[2][4]
• 1929 – Șăineanu defines it as the manager of a theatre company.^[7]
• 1967 – regizor-actor “actor-director” in the press.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A director: the specialist who directs plays, films and other performances.^[5][4][6]
2. (obsolete) The steward or administrator of an estate.^[5][9]
3. (slang) The leader of a gang of burglars.^[11]

Related words

• regie
• regiza
• French régisseur

Usage notes

The feminine is regizoare.^[1][5] Graur wrote in 1985 on the choice between the spellings regisor and regizor; the dictionaries now write regizor.^[3][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. regizor
3. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. regizor
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, 680
5. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 937
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. regizor
7. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 542
8. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
9. ^ a b 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. regizor
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 714
11. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. regizor
12. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. regízor