secretar

Forms

secretar m (plural secretari)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin secrētārius and French secrétaire: MDA2 and the DLR name both,^[2][3] Tiktin and Scriban the Latin word,^[4][5] DEX and Wiktionary the French.^[6][1] The Latin noun, first found in the 11th century, is formed with -ārius on sēcrētus (“secret, set apart”),^[1] the past participle of sēcernō (“to set apart”).^[7] The neuter noun for a writing desk is the same French word in that sense.^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to 1593, in a document of the collection Documente privind istoria României.^[4] MDA2 takes its first record from Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686), in the old sense of an official of the prince's chancery.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the Romanian principalities a secretar was an official who ran a chancery or did the work of a logofăt; from this came the sense of a confidential aide of a ruler or dignitary who drafted letters and documents.^[2][3] Cantemir glosses secretariul with the Turkish title divan efendisi, a Turk whom the prince kept in his pay.^[3] Under the Organic Regulation secretar de stat replaced the title of the great postelnic.^[2] Later the word named officials of ministries and embassies, the clerk of an assembly or society, the office worker who handles correspondence, and the elected leader of a party or organization, as in secretar general.^[2][6] Thieves' slang uses it for an accomplice.^[9]

Timeline

• 1593 – Tiktin's first record, in a document.^[4]
• 1682–1686 – in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[2]
• 1803 – a secretary of the imperial chancery named in a document.^[3]
• 1870 – secretar de stat in Costinescu's dictionary.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A secretary: a person who handles the correspondence and current office work of an institution, a firm or a private person.^[6][2]
2. An official who prepares and carries out the decisions of a state body or ministry;^[8] secretar de stat “secretary of state”.^[6][2]
3. The leader of a political or social organization;^[8] secretar general “general secretary”.^[6][2]
4. secretar de redacție: the member of an editorial staff who coordinates the material of a periodical.^[6]
5. (historical) In the Romanian principalities, the title of an official who ran a chancery or acted as logofăt.^[2][3]
6. (neuter, also secreter) A writing desk with drawers and a fold-down flap.^[6][8]

Usage notes

MDA2 records the old variants secritar, săcretar and săcritar and the regional sicritar.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 841
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. secretar
4. ^ 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. secretar
5. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1183
6. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 998
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. secretar
9. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. secretar
10. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 496