TAKING OVER SOME ELEMENTS OF RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE INTO THE LAIC DISCOURSE
Taking over Some Elements of Religious Language into the Laic Discourse

Summary/Abstract: This article intends to highlight the semantic evolution of some words that initially expressed only religious notions or that had meanings which were specific to the religious language. A series of such words can be found in the contemporary laic language, most of the times having deprecating significations. The influence of the (orthodox) religious language on the today’s Romanian language has manifested, especially, through the spreading and the semantic degradation of some terms that used to express and still express specific religious activities. Some of the religious terms can be found today in the current language, having figurative meanings or being incorporated into collocations. Besides these, there are present, in the contemporary laic language, numerous expressions specific to the Holy Bible and to the prayers, such as: a se spăla pe mâini (to wash away), a fi ţapul ispăşitor (to be the scapegoat), a merge/ a trimite (pe cineva) de la Ana la Caiafa (to drive someone from post to pillar) etc. There can also be found certain anthroponims (which have suffered a semantic degradation, according to the manner a series of biblical characters were presented) as well as quotations, of biblical origin, used as aphorisms. Most of the religious terms still keep, as their fundamental meaning, their religious significance, thus, a determinologization being produced at the level of their figurative use (familiar, ironical popular).

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