astronaut

Forms

astronaut m (plural astronauți, feminine equivalent astronaută)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French astronaute;^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][1]} DEX, DELR, MDA2 and MDN name French alone, while Marcu and Maneca's dictionary of neologisms and NODEX also name the English word astronaut.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][1]} The French word is formed on the model of aéronaute (“aeronaut”) from the combining form astro-, from Ancient Greek ἄστρον (ástron, “star”), and ναύτης (naútēs, “sailor”), from ναῦς (naûs, “ship”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1961, the first edition of the Dicționar de neologisme, with the sense of a person who travels in outer space in a spacecraft.^[2] MDA2 cites only the third edition of that dictionary, of 1978.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed the same: a traveller in space, a synonym of cosmonaut.^[3][4] The adjective astronautic and the noun astronautică, also taken from French, are older than the noun itself in DELR's records (1939 and 1949).^[2] The feminine astronaută appears in the press in 1973, of a group of women being tested at NASA.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1939 – the adjective astronautic, in a technical encyclopedia.^[2]
• 1949 – astronautică “astronautics”.^[2]
• 1961 – astronaut, in the first edition of the Dicționar de neologisme.^[2]
• 1973 – the feminine astronaută, in România liberă.^[2][8]
• 1978 – bioastronautică “bioastronautics”, in the third edition of the Dicționar de neologisme.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An astronaut: a person who travels in outer space in a spacecraft; a cosmonaut.^[3][4][5]

Word family

• astronautic
• astronautică
• bioastronautic
• bioastronautică
• paleoastronaut
• astronaută

Related words

• cosmonaut
• astronavă
• French astronaute

Usage notes

The feminine is astronaută, plural astronaute.^[3][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. astronaut
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 69
4. ^ 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, 116
5. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
7. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional
8. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE)