accepta

Forms

accepta (first-person singular present accept, third-person singular present acceptă, past participle acceptat), first conjugation^[1][2] Before the French form settled, the verb had many shapes: acțeptului (1827), acțeptarisi (1833), acita and aceta (1839), acepta (1846); accepta itself is recorded from 1859.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French accepter, a 19th-century neologism;^[3][2][4][1] DELR, DEX and Marcu give Latin acceptō (“to receive”) beside it as a second model.^[3][2][4][1] Ciorănescu, Tiktin and the DA give French alone.^[5][6][7] The Latin verb is a frequentative of accipiō (“to receive, accept”), formed from ad- and capiō (“to take”).^[3][8]

Some early variants had other sources: the forms in ⟨acț-⟩ and ⟨ațe-⟩ came from Hungarian akceptál, those in ⟨ace-⟩ and ⟨aci-⟩ from Italian accettare.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in the form acțeptului, is in Tomici in 1827, with the sense “to agree to something, to receive”;^[3][6] Tiktin also dates it 1827.^[3][6] The form accepta appears in Bălășescu's Romanian–French dictionary of 1859, and MDA2 quotes it from Maiorescu's parliamentary speeches.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

The verb entered partly through commerce and law: the Calimach code of 1833 has acțeptarisi, and Tiktin gives a accepta o cambie “to accept a bill of exchange”.^[3][6] The general sense “to agree to, to admit” prevailed; the DA quotes Maiorescu's parliamentary use, „apoi am acceptat, guvernul e acceptat” “then we have accepted, the government is accepted”.^[7] DEX adds a weaker sense, “to put up with, to tolerate”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1827 – acțeptului “to accept”, from Hungarian, in Tomici, the first record.^[3][6]
• 1833 – acțeptarisi and acceptant in the Calimach code.^[3]
• 1839 – acita, aceta, from Italian, in Vaillant.^[3]
• 1846 – acepta in Laurian.^[3]
• 1859 – accepta and acceptabil in Bălășescu's dictionary.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To accept: to agree to something, to consent to it; to receive, admit or approve.^[2][9][1]
2. To put up with, to tolerate.^[2]
3. (finance) To accept a bill or account for payment.^[10][6]

Word family

• neacceptare

Related words

• accept
• acceptabil
• acceptant
• accepție

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. 5
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. accepta
4. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. accepta
5. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. accepta
6. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. accepta
7. ^ a b 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. accepta
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 6
10. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. accepta