asistent

Forms

asistent m (plural asistenți, feminine equivalent asistentă)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French assistant, also Latin assistēns and German Assistent: DEX 2009, MDA2 and DILF name all three, Wiktionary French or German, Tiktin and Scriban Latin and French, CADE, DN and NODEX French and German.^{[2][3][4][1][5][6][7][8][9]} DA takes it from Latin, with the senses of the French word.^[10] The Latin form is the present participle of assistō (“to stand by, assist”), formed ad- (“to”) and sistō (“to set, stand”).^[1][11][12] Kluge takes the German noun, used from the 16th century, as originally an English formation on the Latin participle.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to 1842, as an adjective “present” and a noun “assistant, helper”.^[5] MDA2's first record is a passage of Ion Ghica quoted by CADE, in which a case is presented in court by the parties or by their asistenți.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The adjective “present, attending” and the plural noun “those present” follow the Latin and French participle.^[10][7] The noun was soon specialised: Șăineanu and Scriban define it as a pharmacist's or doctor's assistant, and CADE adds the laboratory assistant.^[13][6][7] In Bukovina, after German Assistent, it was a general title of administrative, military and church officials of the eleventh rank, equal to a second lieutenant.^[10] The university rank, between preparator and lector, is recorded in DA and the later dictionaries, and MDN adds the asistent medical, a trained nurse.^[10][14][15] Recent press records give new phrases such as asistent maternal, a person paid to foster an abandoned child.^[16]

Timeline

• 1842 – the first record.^[5]
• 1929 – Șăineanu: a pharmacist's or doctor's assistant.^[13]
• 1931 – CADE: a laboratory assistant, and asistenți “those present”.^[7]
• 1955 – DLRLC defines asistent universitar, the second rank of a university department.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. present, attending: who is present at something.^[2][3]

Noun

1. An assistant: a person who assists someone and is there to help: Asistentul i-a pregătit instrumentele.^[2][3]
2. A university teaching rank below lector, and a person who holds it.^[2][15]
3. (in phrases) asistent medical a trained nurse, asistent social a social worker.^[15][3]
4. (computing, rare) A wizard, a program that guides the user through a complex task.^[1]

Related words

• asista
• asistare
• asistat

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 68
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, 112
4. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. asistent
5. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. asistent
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 129
7. ^ a b c d e Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. asistent
8. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. asistent
9. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. asistent
10. ^ 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. asistent
11. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
12. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
13. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 40
14. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 144
15. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. asistent
16. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. asistent