scandal

Forms

scandal n (plural scandaluri)^[1] The old language mostly used a feminine scandălă: Îndreptarea legii (1652) forbids married bishops to live with their wives lest they put a stumbling block in people's way, „puind și scandălă” “setting a scandal too”.^[2][3] Another old form is scandelă: „rămase domnul cu nume rău şi cu scandelă” “the prince was left with a bad name and with shame” (end of the 17th century).^[3] A regional scandilă means embarrassment: „Mi-i scandilă de ceea ce văd” “I am ashamed of what I see”.^[3][4] The plural is scandaluri; older texts also have scandale.^[5][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic скандалъ (skandalŭ, “stumbling block, temptation”), the Church Slavonic word of the old religious texts; the modern word is also borrowed from French scandale, with Latin scandalum beside it.^[3][4][6] Tiktin takes the old word from the Slavonic and the modern form from Western models.^[2] Ciorănescu derives the old word from Byzantine Greek σκάνδαλον (skándalon), after Murnu, and the modern one from French;^[4][6] MDA2 and NODEX name the Greek word as well.^[7][4][6] DEX and the neologism dictionaries name only French and Latin, and Wiktionary only French.^[5][8][9][1] The old variant ⟨scandelă⟩ was reshaped after candelă.^[2]

The Slavonic word renders Ancient Greek σκάνδαλον (skándalon, “trap; temptation”) in the Gospels and Psalms.^[10][11] Latin took the Greek word in its biblical sense of a cause of stumbling, and the French word goes back to the Late Latin.^[12][13] Beekes thinks the Greek noun, first “trap”, is probably Pre-Greek, though a loan from a lost Indo-European language built on Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump”) is possible; the old comparison with Latin scandō (“to climb”) rests on that root.^[14][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Moxa's chronicle of 1620, where it means “sin”: the emperor did not rejoice at the scandala of others.^[2][3] MDA2 dates the word to 1652.^[4] The first sense in the religious texts is “stumbling block, occasion of sin”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The religious senses, an occasion of sin and the sin itself, belong to the old language; the old phrase piatra scandelei is the “stone of stumbling”, and Constantin Cantacuzino the Gospel's woe to the world because of offences.^[3][2] From them came the outrage that a shameful act causes, in Cantemir's Hronicul and in the 18th-century documents, and the shame or embarrassment of the person who sees it, a sense that lived on regionally.^[3][4]

In the 19th century the word took on the senses of French scandale: an affair that shocks the public, a loud protest, and a noisy quarrel or brawl, recorded from 1827.^[3][15] That last sense became the everyday one: a face scandal is to make a row, and a face cuiva scandal to scold someone loudly.^[5] Marcu also records a colloquial use for a garter belt.^[8][15]

Timeline

• 1620 – “sin” in Moxa's chronicle, the first record.^[2][3]
• 1652 – scandălă “stumbling block” in Îndreptarea legii.^[2][4]
• 1657 – scandală “shame, embarrassment” in a document.^[3]
• 1688 – scandală in the Bucharest Bible.^[3]
• 1766 – scandălă “public outrage” in a document.^[3]
• 1827 – scandal “noisy quarrel” in a document.^[3]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary, as a cause of sin and an act that brings shame.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. An uproar or stir caused by a shameful act; the outrage it provokes.^[5][4][1]
2. A loud quarrel, a row, often with blows; loud noise.^[5][4]
3. An incident that disturbs public order; a shameful act that causes indignation; a disgraceful situation, a disgrace.^[5]
4. (colloquial) A garter belt.^[8]
5. (obsolete) An occasion of sin; a sin.^[4][3]

Word family

• scăndăli
• scandalagiu

Related words

• scandaliza
• scandalos

Usage notes

A face cuiva scandal means to scold someone loudly and harshly.^[5] Regionally, a-i fi scandel means to find something odd or upsetting.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. scandal
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. scandal
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, 788
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. 984
6. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional
7. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. scandal
8. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
9. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria
10. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
11. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
12. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
14. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
16. ^ 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