sacrificiu

Forms

sacrificiu n (plural sacrificii)^[1] The old plural sacrificie occurs in Aristia's Plutarch: „ca să contribuiască la cheltuielile sacrificielor” “so that they should contribute to the costs of the sacrifices”.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sacrificium (“sacrifice, offering to a deity”) and at the same time borrowed from French sacrifice, a learned loan of the early 19th century.^[3][4][2][1] Tiktin gives only the Latin word, and Marcu's dictionary of neologisms puts the French word first; the Dicționar de neologisme also compares Italian sacrificio.^[5][6][7]

The Latin noun is formed on sacrum (“religious rite, sacrifice”) and faciō (“to do, make”), and belongs with sacrificō (“to sacrifice”).^[1][8] The French noun itself comes from the same Latin word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Gheorghe Șincai's chronicle, about 1812, glossed with German Opfer.^[5] MDA2 dates it from the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825, which glosses it with Latin sacrificium, Hungarian áldozat and German das Opfer.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was religious: a ritual offering to a deity in which a living being is killed on an altar, the sense of the 19th-century quotations from Aristia, Maiorescu and Xenopol.^[2][4] Negulici in 1848 explained it as ofrandă “offering”, with the native jertfă in brackets.^[10]

From it came the general sense, a renunciation, willing or forced, for the good of someone or something, and the narrower one of self-sacrifice.^[4][3] Costinescu in 1870 already gives this figurative use beside the religious one.^[11] Modern dictionaries put it first, and record the phrase echipă de sacrificiu for a team that faces great danger to carry out a task.^[3][12] The Dicționar de neologisme also has the sense “effort, expense for a purpose”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1812 – sacrificiu in Șincai's chronicle, the first record.^[5]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda, with Latin, Hungarian and German equivalents.^[4][9]
• 1832 – the verb sacrifica in Iordache Golescu's Condica limbii rumânești.^[4]
• 1848 – listed by Negulici among the neologisms, glossed jertfă.^[10]
• 1870 – Costinescu gives the figurative sense “giving up something for someone's sake”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A willing renunciation of something valuable for the good of someone or something; a sacrifice: a face sacrificii pentru copii “to make sacrifices for one's children”.^[3][4]
2. Self-sacrifice, out of devotion;^[3][4] echipă de sacrificiu, a team that faces great danger to fulfil a mission.^[3][4]
3. A ritual offering to a deity, in which a living being is killed.^[13][4]
4. An effort or expense made for some purpose.^[7][12]

Related words

• sacrifica
• jertfă
• Latin sacrificium

Usage notes

The plural is sacrificii; older texts also have sacrificiuri and sacrificie.^[4][12][14] MDA2 records the old variants sacrificiție and sacrificițiu.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sacrificiu
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 971
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 744
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. sacrificiu
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. sacrificiu
7. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. sacrificiu
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 602
10. ^ 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. sacrificiu
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 458
12. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 3
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan” (1998), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, 2nd ed., București: Univers Enciclopedic, p. 942
14. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. sacrificiu