aspect

Forms

aspect n (plural aspecte)^[1] An old plural aspecturi occurs in Alecsandri: „Aspecturi fioroase de pajuri, de balauri” “fearsome shapes of eagles and dragons”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French aspect.^[4][1] DELR also gives German Aspekt and the learned Latin aspectus (“look, sight, appearance”) as models.^[4] MDA2 names the Latin and French words, while DA and Tiktin name French.^[3][2][5] The French noun is itself borrowed from the Latin one.^[6]

The Latin noun is an action noun formed on aspiciō (“to look at”) with the suffix -tus,^[7][1] and that verb is made of ad- and speciō (“to look”).^[6][4] The grammatical sense of the word is a semantic loan in French from Russian вид (vid).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is from 1844, in Vasici-Ungureanu, together with an old variant aspét.^[4] Tiktin's first date is 1846,^[5] and Negulici's dictionary of neologisms has it in 1848, glossed as the look of a thing and the form under which it shows itself.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is the outward appearance of a being or thing;^[2][9] Odobescu writes that the reliefs of Trajan's Column keep „un aspect cu totul impunător” “a wholly imposing look”.^[2][9] From it came the figurative sense of a side or point of view from which something is considered, which DA quotes from Maiorescu, and the phrase sub aspectul… “from the point of view of…”.^[2][9] The word also became a grammatical term for the stage of completion of the action of a verb.^[4][9]

The derivatives are recent: aspectuos “good-looking, presentable” from 1940, and the grammatical aspectual, from French aspectuel, from 1964.^[4]

Timeline

• 1844 – Vasici-Ungureanu, the first record, with the variant aspét.^[4]
• 1846 – Tiktin's first date.^[5]
• 1848 – Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[8]
• 1940 – the derivative aspectuos.^[4]
• 1964 – the grammatical adjective aspectual.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The way a being or thing presents itself; appearance, look; in the phrase sub aspectul “from the point of view of”.^[9][3]
2. (grammar) Aspect: the category of some languages that shows the stage reached by the action of a verb.^[9][4]

Word family

• aspectual
• aspectuos

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. aspect
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, 113
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. aspect
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. aspect
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București
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. 68