alcoolic

Forms

alcoolic m or n (feminine singular alcoolică, masculine plural alcoolici, feminine/neuter plural alcoolice)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French alcoolique.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The French adjective is formed on alcool with the suffix -ique.^[1] Romanian also had a variant alcoholic, which DELR takes from German alkoholisch and the DA explains by the German pronunciation.^[5][7] The word belongs with alcool, which came into Romanian from French and German in the early 19th century.^[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1830, with the senses “alcoholic, containing alcohol”.^[6] DELR gives 1840, from the French–Romanian vocabulary of Poenaru, Aaron and Hill, with both the adjective and the noun for a person dependent on drink.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective “containing alcohol” came first and is still the main sense: băuturi alcoolice “alcoholic drinks”.^[7][6] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 glosses only this sense, in its Latinist spelling alcoolicŭ.^[9] The noun for a heavy drinker is in Damé's dictionary of the 1890s and in the DA of 1913, which glosses it with the native bețiv “drunkard”.^[10][7] Modern dictionaries add a sense “relating to alcohol or alcoholism”.^[11]

Romanian formed the negative nealcoolic “non-alcoholic” on the word, while antialcoolic was borrowed from French.^[5][12]

Timeline

• 1830 – the first record Tiktin gives.^[6]
• 1840 – adjective and noun in the vocabulary of Poenaru, Aaron and Hill.^[5]
• 1870 – alcoolicŭ “containing alcohol” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[9]
• 1886 – the noun alcoolism in Barcianu's dictionary.^[5]
• 1908 – antialcoolic “combating alcoholism”.^[5]
• 1951 – nealcoolic “non-alcoholic”.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Containing alcohol: o băutură alcoolică “an alcoholic drink”.^[3][2]
2. Relating to alcohol or to alcoholism.^[11]

Noun

1. An alcoholic: a person who drinks to excess; a drunkard.^[3][2][4]

Word family

• nealcoolic

Related words

• alcool
• alcoolism
• antialcoolic
• French alcoolique

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 37
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 26
4. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. alcool
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. alcoólic
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. alcoolic
8. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. alcoól
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 30
10. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État
11. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
12. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 696