acționa

Forms

acționa (third-person singular present acționează, past participle acționat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French actionner (“to set in motion; to sue”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DN compares Italian azionare as well.^[6] The French verb is formed on action with the verb ending -er.^[1]

DELR notes that the Romanian verb did more than its French model: under the influence of acțiune it also took over the senses of French agir (“to act”), for which French uses the noun as its verbal abstract.^[2] That noun is itself a learned borrowing of Latin āctiō, which comes from agō (“to drive, set in motion”), with the French noun as a second model.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is in the newspaper Dâmbovița of 1859, with an old variant acțiuna.^[2] Tiktin's first record, of 1862, has the legal sense “to sue”, and so has MDA2's, a parliamentary speech of Titu Maiorescu: „legea penală îmi dă dreptul de a-l acționa la tribunalele ordinare” “the criminal law gives me the right to sue him before the ordinary courts”.^[5][3][7]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense “to bring an action against someone” came first, and survives in a acționa pe cineva în justiție (or în judecată).^[7][4] Tiktin records the intransitive sense “to act” beside it, and Șăineanu in 1929 gives only the legal one.^[5][8] CADE (1931) adds the mechanical sense “to set in motion”.^[9]

DEX lists the intransitive “to act, to take action; to have an effect” first, and in engineering the transitive verb means to drive or operate a machine.^[4][10] DELR records the derivative acționabil “that can be operated; actionable” from 1963.^[2]

Timeline

• 1859 – acționa in the newspaper Dâmbovița, the first record.^[2]
• 1862 – the legal sense “to sue”, with “to act”.^[5]
• 1866–1876 – “to sue” in Maiorescu's parliamentary speeches.^[3][7]
• 1931 – the mechanical sense “to set in motion” in CADE.^[9]
• 1963 – acționabil.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To act, to take action or do something; to behave in a certain way.^[4][10][1]
2. (intransitive) To have an effect on someone or something, to exert an influence.^[4]
3. (transitive, mechanics) To set in motion, to make a machine or device work; to operate a technical system by controls.^[4][1]
4. (transitive, law) a acționa pe cineva în justiție (or în judecată): to sue someone.^[4][3]

Word family

• acționabil

Related words

• acțiune
• act

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. acțiune
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 12
4. ^ 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. 10
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. acționa
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. acționa
7. ^ a b c Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. acționa
8. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 6
9. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. acționa
10. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. acționa