admite

Forms

admite (present admit, third-person singular admite, past participle admis, third-person subjunctive admită), 3rd conjugation^[1][2] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 enters the verb in a Latinizing spelling, admittere, with Latin admittere beside it.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French admettre, with borrowed from Latin admittō (“to let in, admit”) as a second model: DEX names both, DER and the DA the French word, Tiktin a formation after the French model.^[2][4][5][6] DELR puts the learned Latin word first and the French one beside it, and Marcu's dictionary of neologisms takes it from Latin after French.^[7][8]

The Latin verb meant “to let go, let come in, receive” and is formed from ad- and mittō (“to send, let go”).^[7] The French verb is a 13th-century remaking of Old French amettre after the Latin form.^[9] Graur lists the word in the Latin family of that verb, which also gave Romanian armăsar through Latin admissārius (“stallion”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1799, in Iorgovici's list of proposed new words; the next record DELR gives is Laurian's of 1846.^[7][6] The sense was “to accept, let in, permit; to hold as true”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Negulici's dictionary of 1848 gives the social sense first: to receive someone into one's company or house, or into a share of a gain.^[3] Pontbriant's dictionary of 1862 adds the intellectual senses “to suppose, to accept as true”.^[11] The DA, at the start of the 20th century, has the two main senses still current: to receive someone who meets the conditions (a member of a society, a candidate at an examination) and to recognize something as good and true.^[5] Modern dictionaries add “to allow, tolerate” and the granting of a request.^[2][12]

DELR records a family of French loans around it: admisibil (1846), admisie (1842) and inadmisibil (1848).^[7] The verb is conjugated like trimite.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 1799 – in Iorgovici's list of proposed new words, the first record.^[7][6]
• 1842 – admisie “admission”.^[7]
• 1846 – admite in Laurian;^[7] admisibil “admissible” the same year.^[7]
• 1848 – admittere in Negulici;^[3][7] inadmisibil “inadmissible”.^[3][7]
• 1862 – Pontbriant glosses it “to admit, receive; to suppose, accept as true”.^[11]
• 1949 – admitanță “admittance”, the electrical term.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To accept as good, to hold as true; to agree, at least provisionally.^[2][13][1]
2. To allow, permit, tolerate.^[2][12][1]
3. To grant a request or claim.^[2][12]
4. To admit an applicant or a candidate, to pass someone at an examination.^[2][13]

Word family

• admisibil
• admisibilitate
• admisie
• admitanță
• inadmisibil
• inadmisibilitate
• readmisie
• readmite
• admisiune

Related words

• permite
• promite
• trimite
• armăsar
• Latin admittō

Usage notes

The participle admis is used for a candidate who passed an examination, and the long infinitive admitere names the entrance examination.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 14
3. ^ a b c d Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. admittere
4. ^ 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. admite
5. ^ a b c d 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. admite
6. ^ 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. admíte
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. admite
8. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. admite
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 59–60
11. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 12
12. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 28
13. ^ 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, 17