adresă

Forms

adresă f (plural adrese)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French adresse, a neologism of the late 18th century.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} As Wiktionary has it, it may also be borrowed from German Adresse.^[1] DELR takes the old neuter variant adres from Hungarian adresz.^[3]

The French word is a noun formed on adresser (“to direct, to address”), itself from dresser (“to set upright, to straighten”), from Vulgar Latin *dīrectiō, from dīrēctus (“straight”), the past participle of dīrigō (“to direct”), a compound of regō (“to guide, to rule”).^[3] In French it meant first a way or direction: the TLFi records it as “direct way” from about 1177, and the sense “indication of where a person lives” from 1601.^[7] German took the word from French in the sense “address on a letter” in the 17th century; its sense “formal written address to a dignitary” came in the 18th century from the English of Parliament.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the variant adres in a work of Ioan Piuariu-Molnar of 1788, and Tiktin dates adresă to the same year and author.^[3][4] The DA's earliest literary quotation is from Costache Negruzzi, who has a parcel to be delivered „la adresa sa” “to his address”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In 1848 Negulici's dictionary of neologisms already gave four senses: the address written on a letter or the place where someone lives, a term of the chancery for a respectful official paper, a political term for a chamber's reply to the speech from the throne, and, figuratively, skill or finesse.^[10] The last is the French sense “dexterity”, which DELR and Marcu's dictionary keep as an obsolete meaning.^[3][11] The official letter of an authority is still one of the main senses, recorded by the DA and by Scriban.^[9][12]

From the phrase la adresa cuiva “at someone's address” came the sense “concerning someone, aimed at someone”, as in Tiktin's example of an attack on a minister.^[4][6] In computing the word names the location of data in a computer's memory, and since the 2000s also an e-mail or internet address.^[6][13]

Timeline

• 1788 – adres and adresă in Ioan Piuariu-Molnar, the first records.^[3][4]
• 1809 – the verb, as adresarisi, in a document;^[3] adresa from 1829.^[3]
• 1848 – Negulici lists the noun with its senses “address”, “official paper”, “reply to the throne speech” and “skill”.^[10]
• 1851 – adresant “sender”, in Stamati's dictionary, after Adressant.^[3]
• 1863 – adresat “addressee”, in Barițiu, after Adressat.^[3]
• 1969 – adresabil “addressable”, a computing term.^[3]
• 2003 – adresă for an internet address, in a newspaper quotation.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. An address: the name and place of residence of the recipient written on a letter, a parcel and the like; also the details of where a person lives.^[6][5]
2. An official written communication from an institution or organization.^[6][14]
3. (computing) A numerical expression giving the location of data in memory; also an e-mail or website address.^[6][13]
4. (obsolete) skill, dexterity.^[3][11]

Word family

• adresa
• adresant
• adresat

Usage notes

La adresa cuiva means “about someone”, usually with a critical remark: a glumit la adresa vecinului.^[6] A greși adresa is literally “to get the address wrong”, and colloquially “to misjudge someone”.^[6][5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. adresă
3. ^ 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. adresă
4. ^ 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. adresă
5. ^ 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, 18
6. ^ 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. 15
7. ^ Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard, p. s.v. adresse
8. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 17
9. ^ 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. adresă
10. ^ a b 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. adresă
11. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. adresă
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 72
13. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. adresă
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. adresă