Etymologically
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bisearicã

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Forms

bisearicã f (plural biserits, definite articulation bisearica, definite plural biseritsli)[1]

  • Plural biserits, definite singular bisearica, definite plural biseritsli.[1][2]
  • Other spellings: bãsearicã, bãsearcã and bãserãche in Wiktionary;[1] bisericã, bisearcã, bisercã, bãsearicã and bãsearcã in Cunia;[2] BĂSEARICĂ or BASEÁRCĂ, plural băsérițí, băsérți, in Papahagi's dictionary;[3] biseărică and bisearcă in Dalametra;[4] băseárica, bisérica and bisérca in Mihăileanu;[5][6] Pascu lists biserică (also from Boiagi), bisearică, băsearică, bisercă, bisearcă and băsearcă.[7] Daniil's Tetraglosson writes besiárika.[8]
  • Papahagi calls băsearică the general form and notes that bisearică is also current in northern Aromanian.[3]
  • Regional forms: băseárică, plural băsérici, in Metsovo;[9] bă'serkă in the Ohrid–Struga area;[10] biseariko and biseriko in Weigand's texts.[11]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin basilica (“basilica; church”),[3][7][1] which Latin borrowed from Ancient Greek βασιλική (basilikḗ).[12][1] The Greek word is the feminine of βασιλικός (basilikós, “royal”) used as a noun, short for βασιλικὴ στοά (basilikḕ stoá, “royal portico”);[1][13] Babiniotis traces the term to the portico in Athens where the archon-king held his courts.[13] The adjective is from βασιλεύς (basileús, “king”),[1] which Beekes holds to be of Pre-Greek origin.[14] In Latin a basilica was an oblong hall with colonnades, used as a law court and an exchange;[12] REW gives the Romance sense "church".[15]

The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian biserică, Megleno-Romanian băsę́rică and Istro-Romanian basęrikę.[16][17] REW notes that basilica is the general word for "church" only in the east of the Romance area: in Romanian, in the Latin texts of Syrmia and Remesiana, in Dalmatian and in Rhaeto-Romance, regions without large cities.[15] It gave Dalmatian basalka and Romansh baselgia.[15][18]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Kavalliotis's word list of 1770, where the word translates Modern Greek εκκλησία (ekklisía, “church”).[19]

Semantic evolution

In Aromanian the word means the church as a building, the house where Christians pray and the priest says the liturgy,[20] and in Metsovo also the church service itself.[9] DIARO quotes set phrases: furași cleili di la bisearicâ, "you stole the oil from the church", said of someone with a sooty face, and nu-i dusu la bisearicâ, "he has not been to church", of someone who does not yet know something.[21]

Timeline

  • 1770 – the word for “church” in Kavalliotis's word list.[19]
  • 1802 – besiárika in Daniil's Tetraglosson, as printed by Leake in 1814.[8]
  • 1894 – biseariko “church” in Weigand's glossary.[11]
  • 1901 – băseárica, bisérica and bisérca in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[5][6]
  • 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin basilica.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A church.[20][3][1][4]
  2. (Metsovo) A church service, the liturgy.[9]
  • Romanian biserică

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 199
  3. ^ a b c d Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 265
  4. ^ a b Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 40
  5. ^ a b Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 66
  6. ^ a b Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 70
  7. ^ a b c Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 52
  8. ^ a b Leake, William Martin (1814), Researches in Greece, London (prints Daniil of Moscopole's Tetraglosson), p. 389
  9. ^ a b c Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
  10. ^ Марковиќ, Марјан (2007), Ароманскиот и македонскиот говор од охридско-струшкиот регион (во балкански контекст), Скопје, p. 56
  11. ^ a b Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 297
  12. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  14. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  15. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  16. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
  17. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–
  18. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
  19. ^ a b Meyer, Gustav (1895), Albanesische Studien IV: Das griechisch-südrumänisch-albanesische Wörterverzeichnis des Kavalliotis, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, phil.-hist. Classe 132, p. 47
  20. ^ a b Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
  21. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 132