casetă

Forms

casetă f (plural casete)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French cassette and in part borrowed from Italian cassetta: DELR names both, the French word after DA, Scriban and DEX, the Italian one after CADE, Tiktin and DEX.^[2][3][4] MDA2 and CADE give only the French word, DLRM and Wiktionary only the Italian one, and DA takes it from French, which had it from Italian.^{[5][6][7][1][8]} The Italian word is a diminutive of cassa (“box, chest”) with -etta, the noun itself coming from Latin capsa (“box, case for book rolls”).^[9][2] The sense “cassette with magnetic tape” came again from French and English in the 1960s and 1970s.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1840, with the sense “small box”.^[2][4] Negulici (1848) glosses it with the native words sipețel and besacteluță “small chest, casket” and adds “a king's treasury, his purse”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is a small box for money or valuables.^[2][3] By metonymy it named the private treasury of a sovereign and the money in it: Negruzzi's collected works have a treasurer who empties his lord's caseta.^[8][5] In the 20th century the word spread to technical boxes and holders: the plate holder of a camera, the film magazine of a movie camera, a compartment of a printer's type case, a boxed advertisement and the printer's imprint at the end of a book.^[3][5] From the 1970s it also meant the plastic cassette holding magnetic tape, which gave videocasetă (1972) and casetofon (1974).^[10][2] In architecture it is a sunken panel of a coffered ceiling.^[12]

Timeline

• 1840 – first record, “small box”.^[2][4]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms, also “a king's privy purse”.^[11]
• 1931 – CADE gives “box for money and jewels” and “private fortune of a prince”.^[6]
• 1972 – videocasetă “videocassette”.^[2]
• 1974 – casetofon “cassette recorder” and videocasetofon.^[2]
• 1978 – casete muzicale “music cassettes” in a radio and television magazine.^[10]
• 1988 – casetotecă “cassette rack”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small box or casket for money or small valuables; a box that protects parts of a technical system.^[3][5]
2. (photography) A wooden or metal holder with a movable side into which the plate or film is put; the film magazine of a movie camera.^[3][5]
3. (printing) A compartment of a type case; a boxed notice in a directory; the imprint at the end of a book with the printing data.^[3]
4. A cassette: a compact plastic case holding magnetic tape.^[3] Casetă video is a videocassette.^[3][13]
5. (medicine) The metal part of a dental bridge.^[3]
6. (architecture) A sunken panel of a coffered ceiling or vault.^[12]
7. (dated, figurative) The private treasury of a sovereign; the money in it.^[5][8]

Word family

• casetofon
• casetotecă
• videocasetă
• videocasetofon

Related words

• Italian cassetta
• French cassette

Usage notes

In Moldavia a popular form cășită “box” is recorded, in the counties of Neamț and Putna.^[2][8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. casetă
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. 150
4. ^ 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. casetă
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, 305
6. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. casetă
7. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 119
8. ^ a b c d 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. casetă
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. casetă
11. ^ 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. s.v. casetă
12. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. casetă
13. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. casetă