agenție

Forms

agenție f (plural agenții)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian agenzia, as DELR, MDA2, Tiktin, the DA and Wiktionary all state.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} DELR traces the old variants to other models: agență to agence, itself from Italian, and aghenție to German Agentie, which Tiktin also compares.^[2][4] The DLRM adds a Russian model for the word.^[6]

The Italian word, recorded before 1742, was formed on agente (“agent”) after the pattern of mercanzia beside mercante.^[7] Wiktionary instead derives it from Medieval Latin agentia.^[1] The Italian noun for an agent is from agēns, the present participle of agō (“to do, to drive”).^[7] Within Romanian the word belongs with agent.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1792–1793, in Predetici, and Tiktin gives the same author for 1793.^[2][4] In the old language it often meant a diplomatic agency, the representation of a foreign power, a sense Tiktin renders with German Konsulat.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The DA defines it as an administration run by one or more agents, for private business, as in agenție teatrală and agenție matrimonială, and in commerce as a branch or representation of a bank or firm.^[5] Used alone it could mean the telegraph agency, the news service.^[5] CADE also gives the office or post of an agent and the building where the agency has its seat.^[8]

The diplomatic sense, once usual in the form aghenție, is now marked as old.^[6][9] Modern dictionaries add compounds for the services of the market economy: agenție de voiaj “travel agency”, agenție de bilete “ticket office” and agenție imobiliară “estate agency”.^[10][11] The press of the 2000s coined agenție-căpușă, a state agency that lives off the public budget.^[12] The German loan agentură, recorded from 1824, also meant “agency” in the old language, but later came to mean a network of spies.^[2]

Timeline

• 1792–1793 – first record, in Predetici.^[2][4]
• 1824 – aghentură, the German-based synonym agentură.^[2]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it with German Agentschaft.^[13]
• 1907 – the feminine agentă “female agent”, in the same family.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An agency, a branch or representation of a firm or institution located away from its main seat.^[9][3]
2. agenție telegrafică or agenție de presă: a news agency, which collects information in every field and supplies it to the press and television.^[9][3]
3. A firm that acts as an intermediary in business: agenție imobiliară, agenție de voiaj.^[11][10]
4. A diplomatic representation, a mission led by a diplomatic agent.^[9][4]

Related words

• agent
• agentură
• Italian agenzia

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. agent
3. ^ 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, 27
4. ^ 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. agenție
5. ^ 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. agenție
6. ^ a b c Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 14
7. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. agenție
9. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 20
10. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. agenție
11. ^ a b Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. agenție
12. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. agenție
13. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 13