atent

Forms

atent m or n (feminine singular atentă, masculine plural atenți, feminine/neuter plural atente)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin attentus (“attentive, intent”), a learned 19th-century borrowing of the Latin adjective.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DELR also compares Italian attento.^[3] In Latin the word is the perfect participle of attendō (“to stretch towards, to direct one's mind to”), formed from ad- and tendō (“to stretch”).^[3][6] The DA likewise calls it a neologism from the Latin participle.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR finds the first record in 1848, in a work of Heliade-Rădulescu, with the sense “following something with concentration; considerate of someone's wishes and feelings”.^[3] Tiktin's earliest record is Damé's dictionary of 1893, and MDA2 cites Bacovia.^[4][8]

Semantic evolution

The word came in with the sense of mental concentration, and soon also served as an adverb, “attentively”: the DA quotes a boy who “fusese atent la cele ce li se întâmplase pe drum” “had paid attention to what had happened to them on the way”.^[7] DEX and MDA2 also give a second sense, “obliging, polite towards someone”.^[5][8]

Its family grew around it from Latin and French at the same time: atenție “attention” is recorded in the form atănciune in 1794 and as atenție in 1814, the older atentiv “attentive” (1846) was taken from French, and the negative neatent is formed in Romanian and recorded from 1893.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1846 – atentiv “attentive”, from French, in Laurian.^[3]
• 1848 – atent “attentive”, the first record, in Heliade-Rădulescu.^[3]
• 1893 – atent in Damé's dictionary; the negative neatent in the same year.^[4][3]
• 1934–1935 – the verb atenționa “to draw someone's attention”.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. attentive: following something closely, with the mind fixed on it; also used as an adverb, “attentively”, and of things done with care: o lectură atentă “a careful reading”.^[5][8][1]
2. considerate, obliging and polite towards someone.^[5][8][1]

Word family

• neatent

Related words

• atenție
• atentiv
• atenționa
• Latin attentus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. atent
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. atent
4. ^ 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. atent
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 71
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b 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. atent
8. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 121