atrage

Forms

atrage (third-person singular present atrage, past participle atras, third-person subjunctive atragă) 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is a calque of French attirer (“to attract”), formed from Romanian a- + trage (“to pull, draw”) on the model of the French a- + tirer (“to pull”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Marcu and Maneca also name Italian attrarre as a model.^[6] Pontbriant in 1862 connected it with Latin attrahō, the source of the Romanian neologisms atracție and atractiv, which came through French.^[7][2] Before the calque, plain trage was used in its place.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is Matei Cantacuzino's travel account of 1788, with the sense “to draw towards oneself”; the word also meant to lure and to arouse interest or love.^[2] Tiktin dates it to 1794, and MDA2 to a document of before 1865.^[8][5]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense, drawing towards oneself, is the one of science: the Academy dictionary quotes Poni's physics, where a magnet attracts iron and a force pulls bodies to the earth.^[4] From it came the figurative senses: to lure, to charm or tempt, and to bring something about as a consequence (a-și atrage o pedeapsă “to bring a punishment on oneself”).^[8][9] The phrase a atrage atenția means both to draw attention and to warn.^[9] The derivative atrăgător “attractive” is recorded from 1830.^[2]

Timeline

• 1788 – atrage “to draw to oneself”, in Matei Cantacuzino's travel account.^[2]
• 1794 – Tiktin's first date.^[8]
• 1820–1830 – the noun atracție, in Conachi.^[2]
• 1830 – atrăgător “attractive”.^[2]
• c. 1832 – atractiv, in Iordache Golescu.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To attract, to draw towards oneself;^[9][1] (reflexive, reciprocal) to attract each other: polii opuși se atrag “opposite poles attract”.^[9][1]
2. To get someone, often by cunning, to come or go somewhere;^[9][5] a atrage atenția to draw attention, also to warn.^[9][5]
3. To exert or feel an attraction;^[9][10] (figurative) to charm, lure, tempt.^[9][10]
4. To bring about as a consequence.^[9][8]

Word family

• atractiv
• atracție
• atracțios
• atrăgător
• neatrăgător

Related words

• trage
• French attirer

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. atrage
3. ^ 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. atrage
4. ^ 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. atrage
5. ^ 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, 125
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. atrage
7. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 55
8. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. atrage
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 73
10. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. atrage