asigura

Forms

asigura (third-person singular present asigură, past participle asigurat, third-person subjunctive asigure), 1st conjugation^[1] Șincai's chronicle writes it assecura, and an old form asiguripsi was also used.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian a- + sigur (“sure”), on the model of French assurer, as DA, DEX, MDA2 and Tiktin give it.^[4][5][3][2] The neologism dictionaries name Italian assicurare as a second model.^[6] Tiktin takes the old form assecura directly from the Italian verb.^[2] Ciorănescu lists the verb among the derivatives of sigur, next to the older siguripsi “to assure”, from Modern Greek σιγουρεύω (sigourévo).^[7] The French verb continues Vulgar Latin *assēcūrō, from Latin sēcūrus (“safe”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1694, in a document, while MDA2 gives Șincai's chronicle, in the spelling assecura.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is “to make something certain or lasting for someone”: Bălcescu writes of a treaty that “assures the Romanians the following rights”.^[4][5] From it came the sense “to convince someone of something”, as in te asigur că așa este “I assure you it is so”, and the reflexive “to make sure”.^[2][4] The commercial sense, to insure a house, goods or one's life by a contract, followed with the insurance societies of the 19th century.^[4][3] A technical sense, to lock the parts of a machine in place, is recent.^[5]

Ciorănescu notes that speakers tend to say asigurez for “I sign an insurance policy” and asigur for “I fix, I strengthen”.^[7]

Timeline

• 1694 – the first record, after Tiktin.^[2]
• 1853 – assecura in the edition of Șincai's chronicle, MDA2's first record.^[2][3]
• 1875 – the Latinist spelling assigurà “to assure, affirm” in Antonescu's dictionary.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To ensure: to make something certain or lasting; to guarantee.^[5][1]
2. (transitive) To assure someone of something.^[5][1] (reflexive) To make sure, to take every precaution.^[5][1]
3. (transitive and reflexive) To insure: to take out an insurance contract on one's life or property.^[5][1]
4. (transitive, technology) To lock the assembled parts of a mechanism so that they do not come apart or shift.^[5]
5. (reflexive, of road users) To check for other traffic before driving on.^[1]

Word family

• asigurare
• asigurat
• asigurător

Related words

• sigur
• siguranță
• French assurer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. asigura
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 111
4. ^ 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. asigura
5. ^ 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. 67
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. asigura
7. ^ a b 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. sigur
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 20