Sextil Iosif Pușcariu (4 January 1877 – 5 May 1948) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian linguist and philologist, also known for his involvement in administrative and party politics. A native of Brașov educated in France and Germany, he was active in Transylvania's cultural life and worked as a Romanian-language professor at Czernowitz in the Duchy of Bukovina. He began his scholarly career in 1906, when he was tasked with compiling a general dictionary of the Romanian language. Interested in a variety of disciplines, Pușcariu published widely and brought new ideas into Romania, as well as overseeing two monumental projects related to the language: advancing his dictionary to the letter "L", and creating an atlas of the language.
As a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, Pușcariu embraced the creation of Greater Romania at its conclusion, heading the department of foreign affairs in the provisional government representing Bukovina Romanians. He was also the founder of Glasul Bucovinei, a newspaper which helped channel Romanian nationalism in that region, and, with Ion Nistor, oversaw Bukovina's union with Romania in November 1918. Under Romanian rule, he led efforts to create a new university in Cluj, where he also set up a research institute in the same city dedicated to the study of his native language. He promoted interdisciplinary approaches, primarily by attaching a sociological focus to his studies on linguistics.
Though committed to ethnic nationalism and cultural conservatism, Pușcariu embraced Europeanism during his stint at the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation. He radicalized himself during the 1920s and '30s, first by seeking to impose a Jewish quota at his university, and then by more openly supporting fascist politics. Throughout much of the interval, he chaired the Romanian Orthodox Fraternity, which identified with the mainstream church and sometimes clashed with Transylvanian Greek Catholics. With the onset of World War II, he moved to Berlin, where he led a propaganda institute meant to promote Romanian culture in the German Reich, as well as counter Hungary's justifications for absorbing Northern Transylvania in the wake of the Second Vienna Award in 1940.
Pușcariu raised suspicion from his government employers, who disliked his lavish spending and his continued involvement with the rebellious Iron Guard. He was ultimately pushed to resign in 1943. After his return home, his health deteriorated while the authorities of the new Communist regime initiated legal proceedings. He refused to escape Romania and died at Bran, before he could be sentenced. Pușcariu's work was largely shunned for two decades, and his scholarly legacy was fully revived following the collapse of the regime in 1989.
Biography Origins and early life According to Pușcariu's own research, the family originated in Maramureș, spending time in Moldavia before ending up in southern Transylvania. Named Iuga in Maramureș, their surname was then Pușcașu, reportedly an occupational surname marking their hunting skills (from pușcaș, meaning "shooter"),Stoian, p. 418 before the final form was selected at the suggestion of Bishop Ioan Lemeni (served 1833–1850).Florea, p. 663 In the latter part of the 18th century, one Iuga Pușcașu left Țara Făgărașului and arrived at Sohodol village near Bran; it was from two of his sons that the prominent family was descended.Florea, p. 663. See also Stoian, p. 418 Sextil's grandfather Ioan Pușcașu, a priest from Sohodol, had five sons and five daughters, providing all of them a rigorous education. One son was Ioan Pușcariu, who became a noted jurist and historian, while another, Ilarion, left his mark as a theologian.Faiciuc, pp. xix–xx Sextil's cousins included Emil, a surgeon, who married a sister of the literary historian Ovid Densusianu.Nastasă (2010), pp. 83, 309–10
Sextil's father Iosif (1835–1923) studied at the Transylvanian Saxon high school in Brașov (known then as Brassó and Kronstadt) before being sent to learn Theology in Sibiu. Metropolitan Andrei Șaguna observed that Iosif lacked a priestly vocation and gave him permission to leave the seminary in order to study Law. After graduating from the Saxon Law Academy, where he published a humor newsletter, the elder Pușcariu served as a judge in Zărnești from 1848 to 1867, running his courtroom in Romanian. Upon marrying Eufrosina Ciurcu, who came from a merchant family, he moved to Brașov to work as a lawyer. Applying his literary talent, he founded Cocoșul Roșu, a humor magazine, editing it between 1874 and 1878 and in 1881.Damian, p. 121Faiciuc, p. xx
Born in Brașov as Iosif and Eufosina's sixth son, Sextil Iosif Pușcariu would later have two more brothers and a sister. He attended the Romanian high school in his native city, where he picked up Latin and history from teacher Vasile Goldiș,Crișan, p. 196 before going to Germany and France for his undergraduate and doctoral degrees. Simona Suciu, "137 de ani de naşterea lui Sextil Pușcariu, cel mai mare om de cultură al Brașovului", Adevărul, 4 January 2014; accessed 26 March 2014 Trained in the spirit of Positivism, he was one of the first Romanian scholars to make a transition from philology to methodical linguistics.Constantinescu, pp. 299–301 At the University of Paris, between 1899 and 1901, he studied under Gaston Paris, while his doctoral adviser at Leipzig University was Gustav Weigand.Niculescu, p. 188 Weigand introduced him to a Dutch female student of Romanian, whom Pușcariu would later describe as his first love.Nastasă (2010), pp. 34–36 He also studied at the University of Vienna, Petru Poantă, "Universitatea Daciei Superioare" , in Apostrof, Nr. 11/2011 teaching there in 1904.
As a political journalist, Pușcariu joined the informal group, formed around Octavian Goga, Octavian Codru Tăslăuanu, and Ghiță Pop, and known as tinerii oțeliți ("inuered youth"). The main focus of their criticism was the more conservative Romanian National Party (PNR).Crișan, p. 201 Through 1901, Pușcariu's writings regularly appeared in Gazeta de Transilvania. He also made important contributions to Luceafărul, headed by Tăslăuanu (whom he had befriended as a schoolmate in Brașov), while it appeared both in Budapest and, after 1906, in Sibiu. Nicolae Mocanu, "Sextil Pușcariu, corespondent al lui Ion Agârbiceanu, Dumitru Caracostea (I)" , in Apostrof, Nr. 6/2013 In 1902, he was elected a corresponding member of ASTRA's literary section. During the remainder of his life, he undertook activities related to the society, although at varying paces: active that decade in its philological efforts, he found himself largely overtaken by other activities in the 1910s, only to organize a series of conferences starting in the mid-1920s in Transylvania's towns, both large and small. Gabriel Vasiliu, "Sextil Pușcariu și Astra", Caiete Silvane, 14 February 2008
Debut in academia and World War I experience Pușcariu made frequent crossings into the Kingdom of Romania (the "Old Kingdom", in later reference). He was elected a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy in 1906, becoming a titular member in 1914.Niculescu, p. 187 He also became one of several Transylvanian affiliates of Sămănătorul, the Romanian traditionalist and ethnic nationalist review in Bucharest,Ornea (1998), p. 126 finding his ideas on linguistics and history challenged by Densusianu and Ion Aurel Candrea. Pușcariu's scholarly work was featured in the mainstream review Convorbiri Literare, signaling the latter's own transition toward Sămănătorist nationalism.Ornea (1998), pp. 62, 126
While at Leipzig, he came into contact with Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke, under whom he began his university career and who offered him a post at the University of Fribourg. Pușcariu declined, citing a wish to be closer to the Romanian lands. In 1903 Pușcariu began courting Leonora Maria Dima. In keeping up with the Pușcariu family tradition, which favored consanguine marriage, she was his mother's grandniece.Nastasă (2010), pp. 56, 84, 130 Leonora had studied music in Brașov; her father, a mathematics teacher at Pușcariu's high school, was the elder brother of composer Gheorghe Dima.Faiciuc, p. xxvi They were married on 5 September 1905, selecting academics Ion Bianu and Virgil Cioflec as their godfathers.Nastasă (2010), pp. 111, 149 Leonora's dowry included a villa in Bran, which became Sextil's favorite residence.Nastasă (2010), pp. 149, 242, 384 The Pușcarius went on to have three children. At various later junctions, Sextil looked back on his conjugal life as having greatly improved his life, for being a "perfect union of souls".Nastasă (2010), pp. 72–73, 197–99, 291
In 1906, following earlier attempts by August Treboniu Laurian, I. C. Massim, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, and Alexandru Philippide, the Romanian Academy assigned Pușcariu the task of writing a Dictionary of the Romanian Language, with the latter two personally giving him their notes. Pușcariu took on the challenge at a difficult time: Romania's aging King, Carol I, had asked Philippide to remove all entries for neologisms, causing the latter to resign in protest.Nastasă (2010), pp. 219–20 Pușcariu taught Romanian language and literature at Czernowitz University in the Duchy of Bukovina from 1906. He replaced the retiring Ion G. Sbiera,H., "Noutăți. Dela universitatea din Cernăuți", in Noua Revistă Română, Nr. 1/1908, p. 3 and eventually rose to become dean of the Literature and Philosophy Faculty.Livezeanu (2000), pp. 225–26 This period saw him forming a close bond with philologist Alexe Procopovici and historian Ion Nistor.Nastasă (2010), p. 199 In September 1911, he visited the University of Iași, in Romania, alongside Mathias Friedwagner; he forged a friendship with A. C. Cuza, the jurist and anti-Semitic doctrinaire.Mocanu, p. 15
While in Czernowitz (Romanian name: Cernăuți), Pușcariu refused the chance to teach at Vienna, as he would not have been able to lecture in Romanian, at the same time declaring his adherence to Pan-Germanism.Nastasă (2011), p. 46 The outbreak of World War I caught Pușcariu in Techirghiol, Romania. A reserve officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and overall an Austrian patriot, he rushed back to be mobilized in Brașov,Lucian Boia, "Germanofilii". Elita intelectuală românească în anii Primului Război Mondial, pp. 77–78, 109. Humanitas, Bucharest, 2010, ; Petre Din, "Lucian Blaga și Primul Război Mondial. Anii 1915–1916", in Collegium Mediense, vol. VII (Comunicări Științifice XVI), 2017, p. 73 and was later ordered to Cisnădie. In September 1914, after a liturgical music concert in the Sibiu Lutheran Cathedral, he met Onisifor Ghibu, whom he had known since 1905, and who records the deep concern the ongoing conflict was causing Pușcariu.Faiciuc, p. xxxiOnisifor Ghibu, Oameni între oameni: amintiri, pp. 413, 416. Ed. Eminescu, 1990, Subsequently, Pușcariu was stationed on the Italian Front. There, his sentiments of loyalty toward the Empire conflicted with the Italophilia he felt toward a country whose inhabitants he saw as the natural allies of the Romanians, a fellow Latin people.Damian, passim Czernowitz, the site of his residence, where he kept his manuscripts and materials, fell to the Imperial Russian Army in the first half of the war. From February to June 1916, he was intermittently hospitalized for eye problems, first at Trieste, where he met Iuliu Maniu, and later at Innsbruck, followed by Brașov.Faiciuc, p. xxxii