aventură

Forms

aventură f (plural aventuri)^[1] Older and variant forms are avantură, avântură and eventură; the first record has avenitură, reshaped after venit, the participle of veni.^[2] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 prints it in the transitional alphabet as aventꙋrъ.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French aventure, a neologism of the late 18th and 19th centuries.^[2][4][5][1] DELR, Scriban, the neologism dictionaries and NODEX also name Italian avventura as a model, which DELR itself takes from French.^[2][6][7][8] The French word goes back to Vulgar Latin *adventūra, the neuter plural of the future participle of Latin adveniō (“to arrive, happen”), taken as a feminine singular noun.^[2][9][10] That verb is formed from ad- and veniō (“to come”), the source of the inherited veni.^[2]

The form ⟨avenitură⟩ of the first record was reshaped in Romanian after the participle of that verb.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is a Vienna calendar of 1794, in the form avenitură.^[2] Tiktin dates the word to 1820, and MDA2's first record is Hasdeu's Istoria critică a românilor of 1875, which speaks of eyewitnesses of Darius' unhappy “adventure”.^[11][5][9]

Semantic evolution

The French word first meant “fate, what is to come” and then “an unexpected event”; the modern sense of a bold undertaking mixing danger and discovery came later.^[10] Romanian took it with the later senses: a bold and risky action, an undertaking whose outcome is left to chance, and a dubious or dishonest venture.^[5][4] Negulici glossed it in 1848 as “accident, happening”, CADE still gives “an unexpected, unusual happening”, and Barcianu rendered it in 1886 with German Abenteuer.^[3][12][13]

The word also names a passing love affair;^[9][12] CADE quotes Vlahuță's aventuri de dragoste.^[9][12] Recent press language uses it for adventure tourism, turism de aventură, after English adventure travel.^[14]

Timeline

• 1794 – avenitură in a Vienna calendar, the first record.^[2]
• 1820 – the date of Tiktin's first record.^[11]
• 1835 – avanturier “adventurer”.^[2]
• 1848 – listed by Negulici among the neologisms.^[3]
• 1852 – the verb aventura “to venture”, in Baronzi.^[2]
• 1875 – aventură in Hasdeu's Istoria critică.^[5][9]
• 1944 – aventurism, and in 1950 aventurist.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bold and risky action or undertaking: Plecarea pe munte iarna a fost o aventură.^[4][5]
2. An undertaking left to chance, or one that is dubious or dishonest.^[5][4]
3. A chance and passing love affair.^[4][8]
4. An adventure holiday: a trip into nature on demanding routes with some risk, as in turism de aventură.^[14]

Word family

• aventura
• aventurier
• aventurism
• aventurist
• aventuros

Related words

• veni
• French aventure

References

1. ^ a b 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. aventură
3. ^ a b c 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, p. s.v. aventură
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 81
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 146
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 140
7. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. aventură
8. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. aventură
9. ^ 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. aventură
10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. aventure
11. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. aventură
12. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. aventură
13. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 44
14. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. aventură