bancnotă

Forms

bancnotă f (plural bancnote)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Banknote, with the now obsolete French bank-note as a second model: DELR, DEX and MDA2 give both sources, the DA and Tiktin only the German one.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Wiktionary names the German word, the DN the French and English one, and DEXI adds English.^[1][7][8] Borcia lists it among the German loans of Transylvania and compares Hungarian banknóta.^[9]

Both are from English banknote, made of bank and note.^[2][10] The English word dates from the 17th century and passed into German in the 18th, replacing Bankbillet and Bankzettel; banknotes began as receipts for deposits of precious metal in England and the Netherlands.^[11][10] French took it as banknote in 1804 and in the spelling with a hyphen in 1836.^[12] The DA renders the German word literally as “a bank's note (paper)”.^[5]

DELR derives the variant banconotă from Italian banconota, and the oldest form, băncută, from an unrecorded form ⟨*băncnută⟩ taken from the German.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form băncută in a circular on coins of 1802.^[2] Tiktin's first record of bancnotă is of 1837.^[6] In Odobescu a visitor from the Principalities throws a silver zwanzig among the greasy strips of Austrian banknotes.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The word has meant paper money issued by a bank since its first records; the older synonyms bilet de bancă, hârtie-monedă, the obsolete bancă and banco-țedulă named the same thing.^[4][5] Older forms included bancnot (neuter), bancotă, bancunotă and bangnotă, and the Transylvanian bancută.^[2] The definitions of the 1950s describe a note backed by gold, which DEX 2009 no longer mentions.^[13][14][3] In Moldova bumașcă was its regional equivalent.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1802 – băncută in a circular on coins, the first record.^[2]
• 1837 – bancnotă.^[6]
• 1887 – Austrian bancnote in Odobescu's writings.^[4][5]
• 1903 – Borcia lists it as a Transylvanian loan from German.^[9]
• 1939 – Scriban equates it with bilet de bancă and bumașcă.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A banknote: official paper money payable to the bearer, issued by a bank and used as a means of payment: o bancnotă de o sută de lei.^[3][4][1]

Related words

• bancă
• notă
• banconotă
• German Banknote

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. bancnotă
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 88
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, 162
5. ^ 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. bancnotă
6. ^ 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. bancnotă
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. bancnotă
8. ^ Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. bancnotă
9. ^ a b Borcia, Ioan (1903–1904), Deutsche Sprachelemente im Rumänischen, Leipzig (in Weigand, Zehnter Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig), p. 40
10. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
11. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 194
14. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 66
15. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău
16. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 149