ateriza

Forms

ateriza (third-person singular present aterizează, past participle aterizat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French atterrir (“to land”), with the ending -iza of many neologistic verbs.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Ciorănescu compares simboliza from symboliser and minimiza from minimiser.^[2] DELR explains the ending by the ⟨-iss-⟩ that appears in the inflection of the French verb.^[3] DEX, the DLRM and Marcu's dictionary describe the word as made after the French model.^[4][7][6] Wiktionary instead treats it as a calque of the French verb, built of the prefix a-, the Latin stem terra (“earth”) and the suffix.^[1]

The French verb is formed on terre (“earth, land”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is from 1909, in the form aterisa and in the sailing sense of a ship reaching the shore.^[3] The sense of an aircraft coming down to the ground is recorded from 1939.^[3] MDA2's first record is in Otilia Cazimir's Poezii of 1939.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The sailing sense came first in Romanian: a ship drawing near the coast and putting in, or sighting the shore from the open sea and marking the landing point on the chart.^[3][9][5] From the 1930s the aviation sense took over, and it is the main sense in DEX.^[3][4] Sport adopted the word for touching the ground after a jump.^[5][9]

Figurative uses followed: a person who turns up somewhere without warning is said to “land” there.^[4][9] MDA2 also records a slang phrase for slapping someone and an old phrase for a razor that catches on the skin while shaving.^[9]

Timeline

• 1909 – aterisa, a sailing term, the first record.^[3]
• 1930 – the noun aterizaj, in the form aterisaj.^[3]
• 1939 – the aviation sense;^[9] Otilia Cazimir's Poezii.^[3][9]
• 1949 – aterizor “landing gear”, in the form aterisor.^[3]
• 1954 – radioaterizare “radio-guided landing”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of an aircraft: to land, to carry out the manoeuvres needed to come down and stop on the ground.^[4][9]
2. (figurative) Of a person: to turn up somewhere unexpectedly.^[4][9]
3. (sports) To touch the ground after a jump.^[9][5]
4. (nautical) Of a ship: to approach the shore and put in; to sight the coast from the open sea.^[9][5][10]

Word family

• aterizaj
• aterizor
• radioaterizare

Related words

• French atterrir

Usage notes

In slang, a-i ateriza cuiva vreo două focuri means to give someone a couple of slaps.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b 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. ateriza
3. ^ 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. ateriza
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 71
5. ^ a b c d e Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
7. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 52
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 122
10. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional