tipic

tipic¹ typikon, customary form

Forms

tipic n (plural tipicuri)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the church book of rites is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic типикъ (tipikŭ), as DEX gives it.^[1][2] Ciorănescu and Tiktin put first a direct loan from Byzantine Greek τυπικόν (tupikón), and MDA2 and the DLR name both sources.^[3][4][5][6] The Slavonic word was taken from the same Greek word, the neuter of the adjective τυπικός (tupikós, “typical”).^[2]

The word survives south of the Danube too: Aromanian tipico “church book”, which Papahagi and Pascu derive from Greek.^[7][8][3] The plural tipicale, the liturgical hours between the sixth and the ninth, is a separate borrowing of the Greek plural Ancient Greek τυπικά (tupiká).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Molitvenic of 1564.^[4] MDA2 and the DLR cite a list of church books of 1588 that counts twelve Menaia and one tipic.^[5][6] The sense was the book of the rules by which the services are held.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Tiktin notes that the tipic was the set of instructions for the service, as opposed to the text of the prayers, and that in the older church books whose text was still Slavonic these instructions were usually already in Romanian, for priests who knew no Slavonic.^[4] Klein's dictionary of 1801 glosses it with Latin rubrica.^[9] The DLR quotes the Bible of 1688, whose preface speaks of „rânduiala tipicului elinesc” “the order of the Greek typikon”.^[6]

From the rules of the service the word passed to any fixed rule, custom or routine: Maiorescu writes of a proof made „după tipicul scolasticilor”, and Creangă of a priest accused of not keeping to the tipic.^[6] Scriban adds an ironic sense, routine or red tape.^[10] The expression a vorbi după tipic means to speak in an orderly, measured way, and regional speech has a-i găsi tipicul “to find the catch in something” and a-i veni tipicul “for the right moment to come”.^[5][6] Ciorănescu lists the derivatives tipicar “formalist”, tipicărie “pedantry” and tipicui “to prescribe”.^[3]

Timeline

• 1564 – Coresi's Molitvenic, the first record.^[4]
• 1588 – a list of church books with one tipic.^[5][6]
• 1688 – „rânduiala tipicului elinesc” in the preface of the Bucharest Bible.^[6]
• 1801 – Tipic glossed rubrica in Klein's dictionary.^[9]
• 1825 – typicu “model; rubric” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[11]
• 1851 – Anton Pann's Tipic.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. a usual, stereotyped formula; a custom, tradition, norm or rule: Ceremonia s-a desfășurat după tipicul obișnuit.^[1][5]
2. (Christianity) the typikon, the book of the rules for the church services; a rule for the service; ritual.^[1][5][4]

Word family

• tipicar
• tipicărie
• tipicui

tipic² typical

Etymology tree of tipic²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin typicus

Romanian tipic

Forms

tipic m or n (feminine singular tipică, masculine plural tipici, feminine/neuter plural tipice)^[12]

Etymology

The adjective for “typical” is borrowed from French typique,^[6][5][12] and DEX, DILF and Marcu also name borrowed from Latin typicus, a case of multiple etymology.^[1][13][14] Marcu and Maneca compare Italian tipico too.^{[1][13][14][15]} Gabinschi counts it among the European words of the family, with German typisch and Russian типичный (tipičnyj).^[2] The French word is from the Latin one, from Ancient Greek τύπος (túpos, “mark, impression, type”),^[12] and Wiktionary notes that Romanian can also analyse it as tip with the suffix -ic.^[12] Gabinschi puts it in one family with the noun tipic, whose Greek source is the neuter of the same adjective.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and the DLR first record it in Hasdeu's Istoria critică a românilor (1875): „Să abordăm un alt nume tipic al Țărei Românești” “let us take up another typical name of Wallachia”.^[5][6] The sense was “characteristic of a type”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Șăineanu's dictionary gives the senses “characteristic of a type”, “serving as a type” and “symbolic”.^[16] Barcianu glosses it in German as “exemplary, typical”.^[17] Used as a noun, tipicul “the typical” became a term of literary theory, the features of a character or an artistic phenomenon that express what is essential in reality; in the 1950s it was central to Marxist–Leninist aesthetics.^[18][6]

Timeline

• 1875 – Hasdeu's Istoria critică a românilor, the first record.^[5][6]
• 1886 – Barcianu's Romanian–German dictionary.^[17]
• 1956 – tipicul as a term of aesthetics in the journal Contemporanul.^[18]

Meanings

Adjective

1. typical: that distinguishes a person, thing or phenomenon; caracteristic, specific: Este o greșeală tipică pentru începători.^[1][5]
2. (as a neuter noun) what is specific; in literary theory, the features of a character or an artistic phenomenon that express the essence of reality.^[1][18]