traficant

Forms

traficant m (plural traficanți)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French trafiquant, as DEX, DLR, MDA2, MDN and Wiktionary give it.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Scriban compares Italian trafficante as well.^[6] It belongs with trafic “trade, traffic”: Șăineanu defines the word as one who trades.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 has the word with the French gloss trafiquant, for a person who trades.^[8][3] MDA2's first record is in Ion Ghica's letters to Alecsandri, published in 1887, where a traficant is a shopkeeper who must report each delivery of goods.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th century the word meant a merchant or trader;^[9] Barcianu (1886) glosses it with German Handelsmann.^[3][9] In the 20th century it narrowed to a person who trades illegally, and more broadly a profiteer;^[8] DEX 2009 adds organised networks dealing in drugs or arms.^[3][2][4] A press example of 1977 tells of drug traffickers arrested in Rome.^[3]

Timeline

• 1870 – in Costinescu's dictionary, “merchant”.^[8]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it as “tradesman”.^[9]
• 1887 – “merchant, shopkeeper” in Ion Ghica's letters.^[4][3]
• 1977 – traficanți de droguri “drug traffickers” in the press.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. trafficker: a person who trades illegally, especially in dangerous goods such as drugs or weapons, through organised networks.^[2][4]
2. (by extension) A profiteer, a shady dealer.^[4][10]
3. (obsolete) A merchant, trader.^[4][3]

Related words

• trafic
• trafica
• French trafiquant

Usage notes

A separate word traficant, from German Trafikant as used in Austria, meant “tobacconist” in Transylvania and Bukovina; it is obsolete (DLR's traficant²).^[3][4] The feminine is traficantă, plural traficante.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1135
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. traficant
4. ^ 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, 1248
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. traficant
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1334
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 660
8. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 627
9. ^ a b c Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 652
10. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. traficant