înțelegere

Forms

înțelegere f (plural înțelegeri)^[1]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of înțelege, formed from Romanian înțelege + -re and used as a noun.^[1][2][3][4] The verb is from Latin intellegō (“to understand”).^[4][1] The noun thus names the action of understanding and its result, and also the agreement reached when people understand each other.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to the 16th-century Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3] The index of the 16th-century psalters has the word in that psalter at Psalm 135:5, and in no earlier one.^[6] MDA2 cites only Tiktin's dictionary of 1903 for it.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Tiktin records the old sense “sense, meaning”: a text he quotes asks with what meaning, cu ce înțelegere, Saint Nicholas was painted holding a sword.^[3] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 gives four senses: the act of understanding, the power to understand, concord, and the meaning of a word.^[7] “Agreement, concord” is the sense Tiktin puts first, with Eminescu's amoroasele-nțelegeri “lovers' understandings” and the phrase a trăi în bună înțelegere “to live in harmony”.^[3] Tiktin and Scriban record the old phrase a lua înțelegere cu cineva “to come to terms with someone”, and Scriban and Șăineanu a secret understanding with conspirators.^[3][8][9] Modern Romanian added sympathy for someone's difficulties and a treaty between states.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 135:5), the first record.^[3][6]
• 1801 – Intzelegere in Klein's dictionary.^[10]
• 1825 – four senses in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[7]
• 1862 – Pontbriant glosses it “comprehension, agreement, intelligence”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of understanding and its result; understanding, pricepere, intelligence.^[2][1]
2. Goodwill, sympathy for someone's (difficult) situation: Ne-a privit cu înțelegere.^[2]
3. A meeting of minds or feelings; agreement, învoială; also a treaty or document concluded between states or organisations.^[2][1]
4. Peace, harmony: a trăi în bună înțelegere “to live in harmony”.^[2][3]

Word family

• neînțelegere

Related words

• înțelege
• înțeles
• înțelegător

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 558
3. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. înțelégere
4. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1262
5. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 680
6. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 135:5
7. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 314
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 705
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 334
10. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 384
11. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 364