victimă

Forms

victimă f (plural victime)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French victime, with Latin victima (“sacrificial animal”) as a second model: a neologism with two models.^[2][3][4][5] Tiktin takes it from the Latin word alone, and Wiktionary from French.^[6][1] The French word was borrowed from Latin around 1485.^[7] The origin of the Latin word is unclear: de Vaan weighs a link with vicis (“turn, exchange”), the victim as an exchange with the gods, and one with Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to select”).^[8]

The same Latin family gave Romanian the inherited verb vătăma “to injure”, from victimō (“to sacrifice”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and the DLR give the first record in a Calendariu of 1794, in the sacrificial sense: „eu detoresc a fi victima sau vita de junghiat” “I owe to be the victim or the beast for slaughter”.^[3][4] MDA2 also lists the rare old form viptimă.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was a being offered to a god.^[4][3] In 1848 Negulici explained it with the native jertfă “sacrifice”.^[10] The sense of a person who suffers or dies through others' cruelty or through a disaster then became the main one, and the law uses it for someone harmed by an unlawful act.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1794 – first record, in a Calendariu.^[3][4]
• 1823 – in Bobb's dictionary.^[6]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[10]
• 1862 – Pontbriant gives it with the Latin model and the French victime.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who suffers physical or moral harm through the faults of others or through a disaster: victimele inundațiilor “the flood victims”.^[2][3]
2. (law) A person whose life, health or body is harmed by an unlawful act of someone else.^[2]
3. (antiquity) An animal or person sacrificed to a god.^[2][3][1]

Related words

• vătăma
• Latin victima

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1197
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, 1473
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. victimă
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. victimă
6. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. victimă
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. vătăma
10. ^ 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, p. s.v. victimă
11. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 780