sergent

Forms

sergent m (plural sergenți)^[1] Older variants are sergente, sergeant, serjant, serjent, sarjant and șerjant, with regional serjă and sărjent.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French sergent.^[3][4][5][1] MDA2 and the DLR also name Russian сержант (seržant), Polish sierżant and German Sergeant, which account for the older forms with /ʒ/.^[2][6]

The French word is a remaking, in the early 13th century, of Old French serjant (about 1050), from Medieval Latin servientem, a legal term of the 8th century for a man in a lord's service: the accusative of serviēns, present participle of serviō (“to serve”).^[7] German borrowed the Middle French word, first for a lord's lower official, then a court officer and an infantry non-commissioned officer.^[8] Graur places it in the family of Latin servus (“slave”), with șerb, servi, serviciu and șervet.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Nicolae Costin's chronicle of Moldavia, in a plural spelled with ⟨j⟩.^[2][6] MDA2 dates it 1601, but that is the year in the chronicle's title.^[2] In 1829 a list of army ranks gives „Fieștecare companie are un căpitan, … 4 serjanți, 8 caporali” “each company has a captain, … 4 sergeants, 8 corporals”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From the military rank the word passed to the person who holds it and, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, to a town policeman, the sergent de oraș or sergent de stradă.^[3][10][11] Ghica, Caragiale and Vlahuță use it of soldiers and policemen alike.^[6] Older dictionaries also record sergent-furier, the sergeant who kept a company's correspondence and supplies, and sergent-major, who kept its accounts.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 1829 – serjanți “sergeants” in a list of the ranks of a company.^[6]
• 1861 – un sergent privighetor “a watchman sergeant” in a calendar.^[6]
• 1929 – Șăineanu records the police sense and the ranks sergent-major and sergent-furier.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. sergeant: the rank in the army or police immediately above caporal.^[3][2]
2. A person who holds this rank;^[3][4] sergent-major is the rank above it and below plutonier, the first rank of subofițer.^[3][4]
3. (formerly) A town policeman, gardian.^[3][10]

Related words

• servi
• șerb
• French sergent

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 863
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. 1007
4. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. sergent
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. sergent
6. ^ 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. sergent
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 845
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 91
10. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1190
11. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 584