Bogdan POPA (Academia Română – Institutul de Istorie „Nicolae Iorga”)
DESPRE TRECUTUL UNUI CUVÂNT. „DACIADA”, DE LA TITLU DE EPOPEE LA COMPETIȚIE SPORTIVĂ
Keywords: “Daciada”, youth policies, totalitarianism, Carol II, Nicolae Ceaușescu.
Abstract: On the past of a word. “Daciada”, from epos title to sports competition. This article is an introduction into the semantic history of “Daciada”. Mentally associated with the mass youth sports competition organised in the 1970s-1980s, marked by the increased role of the ancient population of the Dacians in the propaganda of the communist regime. The semantic history of the term “Daciada” is much more complex. Coined as an epos name in 1885, the “Daciada” was used again during the 1930s in connection with the youth policy of King Carol II. Though any possible causal links remain to be established, “Daciada” hints towards a connection and possible comparisons between the youth policies of the 1930s and the 1970s-1980s, decades marked by the personality cultus of Carol II and Nicolae Ceaușescu.