asigurare

Forms

asigurare f (plural asigurări)^[1] A Latinist form asecurare was also used in the 19th century.^[2][3] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 spells it assigurare.^[4]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian asigura + -re: the long infinitive of the verb, turned into an abstract noun.^[2][3][5][1] The verb itself was made from sigur (“sure”) on the model of French assurer.^[6][7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 lists assigurare “the act of insuring”, with the French assurance.^[4] MDA2's first record is in Constantin Negruzzi's writings, published in 1872, where it means a guarantee: the quotation speaks of securing someone's living.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

From the general sense “making something certain” the word came to mean a firm promise, as in the closing formula of letters Primiți asigurarea stimei mele “please accept the assurance of my esteem”.^[2] A specialised legal and commercial sense, a contract that pays compensation for a loss in return for regular payments, gave phrases such as societate de asigurare “insurance company” and primă de asigurare “insurance premium”.^[2][8] Asigurări sociale is the state's social insurance, and asigurări de sănătate health insurance.^[3][9] In engineering it names the securing of a structural element against shifting.^[9]

Timeline

• 1870 – assigurare in Costinescu's Romanian–French dictionary.^[4]
• 1872 – asigurare “guarantee” in the edition of Constantin Negruzzi's writings.^[3][2]
• 1875 – assigurare “assurance, guarantee” in Antonescu's dictionary.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of making something certain or safe; assurance, guarantee.^[9][3][1]
2. A firm promise, an assurance given to someone: Am primit asigurări că lucrarea va fi gata la timp.^[9][3]
3. (law) insurance: a contract by which an insurer, in return for periodic payments, compensates the insured for a specified loss (accident, fire etc.); asigurări sociale “social insurance”.^[9][3][1]
4. (engineering) The securing or fixing of a structural element so that it does not shift or deteriorate.^[9][3]

Related words

• sigur
• French assurance

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. asigurare
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 76
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. asigurare
6. ^ 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
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 129
9. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 67
10. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 20