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cercetare

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word cercetare

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1563–1583 Codicele Voronețean More words from the 16th century
Ultimate origin
Latin circitō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Romanian cerceta
Romanian cercetare

Forms

cercetare f (plural cercetări)[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian cerceta + -re, the long infinitive of the verb used as a noun.[1][2][3] Its modern senses follow French recherche.[4]

cerceta continues Latin circitō (“to go around, patrol”), an iterative of circō or circumeō, a verb kept only in Romanian.[4][5][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is in the Codicele Voronețean (1563–1583), where Tiktin quotes „dzua cercetariei” “the day of visitation” from 1 Peter 2:12.[4][7] MDA2's first record is in Coresi's Gospel homilies of 1581.[2]

Semantic evolution

The old senses were a visit and care given to someone, beside examination and inquiry.[4][7] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons from 1649 use it for Slavonic “visitation”, and Klein (1801) glosses it Latin “visitatio”.[8][9] The Lexicon de la Buda (1825) has both “investigation” and “visit”.[10] Pann still used it of visits.[7]

In the law it became the inquiry into a case and the hearing of witnesses.[11][2] With the French model it took the sense of scientific research: institut de cercetări “research institute”.[4][12] The military sense is reconnaissance.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1563-1583 – cercetariei in the Codicele Voronețean.[4][7]
  • 1581 – in Coresi's Gospel homilies.[2]
  • 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.[8]
  • 1688 – cercetare and cercetarea in the Bucharest Bible.[13]
  • 1862 – “examination, inquiry, hearing of witnesses” in Pontbriant.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act of examining or searching and its result; an examination or inspection: o cercetare atentă a documentelor.[3][2]
  2. Original research aimed at new scientific or technological knowledge.[3]
  3. (law) The investigation by the criminal authorities to gather evidence and find the offender.[3]
  4. (military) reconnaissance: gathering information on the enemy and the ground.[3]
  5. (dated) A visit.[7][14]
  • cerceta
  • cercetat
  • cercetaș
  • cercetător

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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, 363
  3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 171
  4. ^ 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. cerceta
  5. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. cerceta
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1943
  7. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cercetare
  8. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro
  9. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 330
  10. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 110
  11. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 121
  12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 392
  13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition)
  14. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 119
Cite this entry

“Cercetare.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/cercetare. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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