capacitate

Forms

capacitate f (plural capacități)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French capacité and directly borrowed from Latin capācitās (“capacity”), as DELR, DEX and MDA2 give it.^[2][3][4][1] The DA names only the Latin source, Tiktin from Italian capacità and French.^[5][6] The old variant ⟨capațitet⟩ comes from German Kapazität, and ⟨capațita⟩ from Italian, read with the German pronunciation of Latin.^[2] That noun is formed from Latin capāx + -tās, from the adjective “able to hold”, which comes from capiō (“to take, hold”).^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1799, when Iorgovici put it in a list of new words he proposed for Romanian, with the senses “what a vessel can hold” and “ability”.^[2] Tiktin's first record is in Șincai's chronicle, about 1812.^[6] He also records the obsolete form capațita.^[6] The variant capațitet appears in 1819.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Negulici's dictionary of 1848 gives both senses, the room inside a vessel and, figuratively, skill and insight.^[8] In law it is the power to perform valid acts, quoted by the DA from Hamangiu's Civil Code;^[5][4] MDA2 dates the word from that code, in its edition of 1897.^[5][4] By extension a capacitate is a very able person: o mare capacitate medicală.^[5][3] The examen de capacitate was once the examination for secondary-school teachers.^[9] From 1998 the name was used for the examination at the end of the eighth grade.^[10] Economic language added capacitate de producție for a production unit.^[10]

Timeline

• 1799 – first record, in Iorgovici's list of proposed new words.^[2]
• c. 1812 – capațita in Șincai's chronicle.^[6]
• 1819 – the variant capațitet.^[2]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[8]
• 1870 – incapacitate “inability”.^[2]
• 1897 – the legal sense in Hamangiu's Civil Code.^[4][5]
• 1932 – the verb capacita “to qualify by examination”, formed on this noun, in Arghezi.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The volume of a container.^[3][1]
2. Capaciousness; the largest amount of matter or energy a body or system can take in;^[3][4] măsuri de capacitate “measures of capacity”.^[3][4]
3. The ability of a body or system to take in an amount of matter or energy.^[3]
4. The ability to work in a field or achieve something; aptitude; by extension, a very able person.^[3][4]
5. (law) The capacity to perform valid legal acts.^[3][4]

Word family

• capacimetru
• capacita
• capacitiv
• incapacitate

Related words

• capabil
• capace

Usage notes

The plural is capacități.^[3][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. capacitate
3. ^ 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. 141
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 289
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. capacitate
6. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. capacitáte
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. capācitās
8. ^ a b 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. 72
9. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. capacitate
10. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. capacitáte