celular

Forms

celular m or n (feminine singular celulară, masculine plural celulari, feminine/neuter plural celulare)^[1] As a noun, celular “mobile phone” is neuter, with the plural celulare.^[1][2] DELR records an older variant țelular or țelulariu.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French cellulaire.^[3][4][1] The French adjective is formed on cellule with the suffix -aire.^[1] Tiktin relates it to celulă and compares Italian cellulare as well.^[5] The telecommunications sense follows English cellular, in the phrase “cellular telephone”.^[3][6]

The French noun is taken from Latin cellula (“small room”), the diminutive of cella (“storeroom, small room, cell”); its biological sense goes back to Robert Hooke's “Micrographia”, which used the English word cell.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the word to 1842, in the biological sense “of cells”.^[3] Tiktin gives 1830, but DELR notes that this date is not confirmed in Ursu's work.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides the biological sense, 19th-century usage gave the word a prison sense: Șăineanu and Scriban define the închisoare celulară, a prison where each inmate is kept alone in a cell, and Scriban the closed prison van, the trăsură celulară.^[7][8] The legal phrase regim celular names this strict solitary confinement.^[2][9]

At the end of the 20th century the word entered telecommunications: telefonie celulară is the radio network divided into cells, and telefon celular became, as a noun, the everyday word for a mobile phone, alongside mobil.^[3][2][10] In slang the neuter noun is just a phone, and the press also uses celular for a prison's cell block and, as a masculine noun, for an inmate.^[11][10]

Timeline

• 1830 – Tiktin's date for the first record, not confirmed by DELR.^[5][3]
• 1842 – the first record DELR accepts.^[3]
• 1895 – unicelular “single-celled”, from French unicellulaire.^[3]
• 1939 – intercelular and pluricelular, from French.^[3]
• 1997 – telefon celular “mobile phone” in the press.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. cellular: belonging to or of the nature of a cell; made up of cells;^[2][4] teorie celulară “cell theory”.^[2][4]
2. (law) In the phrase regim celular, the prison regime of strict isolation in individual cells.^[2][4]
3. (telecommunications) In telefonie celulară, a mobile telephony network built of relay stations that each cover one cell;^[2][12] telefon celular “mobile phone”.^[2][12]

Noun

1. A mobile phone, a cellphone.^[2][4][1]
2. The part of a prison where the cells are.^[13][10]

Word family

• unicelular
• pluricelular
• multicelular
• intercelular
• intracelular
• extracelular
• subcelular

Related words

• celulă
• celulos
• celulită
• French cellulaire

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 DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 168
3. ^ 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. celulă
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, 356
5. ^ 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. celular
6. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 117
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 256
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 385
10. ^ a b c d Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE)
11. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu
12. ^ a b Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria
13. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. celular