ședință

Forms

ședință f (plural ședințe)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian ședea + -ință on the model of French séance, a loan translation of the French word.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Wiktionary takes the French noun from séant with the suffix -ance.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1841, in Poenaru's vocabulary, which also has the French-looking form seanță.^[5] MDA2 starts with Stamati's dictionary of technical and difficult words, printed at Iași in 1851.^[3] The sense was a sitting of an assembly.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Șăineanu (1929) defines it by the seat taken in an assembly, the persons taking part and the time of a deliberation, as in ședințele Camerei “the sittings of the Chamber”.^[6] The word also covers a court hearing.^[2] The second sense, a single period of an activity, covers a sitting for a portrait, which Scriban mentions, and a session of medical treatment.^[7][2][8] MDA2 records a rare old plural ședinți.^[3]

Timeline

• 1841 – first record, with the variant seanță, in Poenaru.^[5]
• 1851 – in Stamati's dictionary.^[3]
• 1929 – the sittings of the Chamber in Șăineanu.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A meeting or sitting of the members of a body, a staff or a group, held to discuss and decide something.^[2][3][1]
2. (law) the hearing of a case before a court.^[2]
3. A session: a stretch of time in which a talk is given, an activity carried out or a medical treatment applied.^[2][9]

Related words

• ședea
• ședere
• French séance

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1086
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1094
4. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. ședință
5. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ședínță
6. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 582
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1278
8. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. ședință
9. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. ședință