statut

Forms

statut n (plural statute)^[1] An older plural statuturi occurs in a document of 1834: „după statuturile ce ni să vor înfățișa” “according to the statutes that will be presented to us”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French statut, and the dictionaries name further models beside the French word.^[4][1] According to DEX it is also borrowed from Latin statūtum.^[4] DN adds Italian statuto as well, and MDA2 and DLR give French, Italian and German Statut.^[4][5][3][2] Wiktionary names the French word only.^[1] Gabinschi counts it among the international words of Latin origin and names the French and German forms and Russian статут (statut) as its models.^[6]

The Latin word, “an ordinance”, is the neuter of the past participle of statuō (“to set up, establish”), used as a noun.^[7][1] The French word is inherited from Old French.^[1] The German word was borrowed from Latin in the 14th century.^[8][9] The Italian word is a learned loan from Late Latin, recorded from 1292–1309 in the statutes of Siena.^[10][11] Graur places the word in the Latin family of stō (“to stand”), with Romanian sta, stat and statuie.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the title of a printed extract from the statute of the quarantine service, of 1818: Extras din statutul carantinei.^[2][3] It already has the modern sense, the body of rules on which an organization is founded.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 1820s and 1830s the plural statute or statuturi named the rules of an institution or a society, and Negulici defined it in 1848 as the rules of conduct in a company.^[2][13] Costinescu (1870) adds the legal senses of French: a particular law by which the persons and property of a province are governed, and an English act of parliament.^[14] In 1864 Statutul became the name of the fundamental law proclaimed by Cuza, and Scriban also uses it for the constitution of Italy.^[15][16] This sense of “constitution” is now dated.^[4]

The legal phrases statut personal and statut real name the laws that apply to a state's citizens and to the property on its territory.^[4][3] In the second half of the 20th century sociology added statut social, a person's place in a social system, a synonym of status.^[4][17] NODEX records a broader sense, the actual position or condition of someone, as in statutul femeii în societate “the status of women in society”.^[18]

Timeline

• 1818 – Extras din statutul carantinei, the first record.^[2][3]
• 1834 – the plural statuturi in a document.^[2]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[13]
• 1864 – the name of the fundamental law proclaimed by Cuza.^[15][16]
• 1870 – Costinescu gives the legal senses of French statut.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A statute: the official act or set of rules that lays down the purpose, structure and working of an organization, a company or an association, and by extension a law or regulation.^[4][3]
2. (law) statut personal: the laws that apply to the citizens of a state, statut real: the laws that apply to the property on its territory.^[4][3]
3. statut social: the position of a person or a group within a social system at a given time, status.^[4][17]
4. The actual situation or standing of someone or something.^[18][5]
5. (dated) A constitution, especially the one proclaimed by Cuza in 1864.^[4][15]

Related words

• statutar
• status
• stat
• Latin statūtum

Usage notes

The plural is statute; the old plural statuturi and a feminine variant statută are obsolete.^[4][3] The adjective stătut “stale, stagnant” is a different word, the participle of sta.^[19][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. statut
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 974
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1047
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
6. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 164
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 878
9. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
10. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 95
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci
15. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1238
16. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 614
17. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
18. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional
19. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study)
20. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État