cerere

Forms

cerere f (plural cereri)^[1]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of cere, formed from Romanian cere + -re and used as a noun.^[1][2][3][4] The verb is from Latin quaerō (“to seek”), a verb kept throughout Romance.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates it to about 1500, and the index of the 16th-century psalters has the articled form cererea in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (early 16th century) at Psalms 19:6, 36:4 and 105:16.^[4][6] Tiktin's first record is the same verse 36:4 in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2] MDA2's date, the New Testament of 1648, is later.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Beside “request, prayer” and “demand, claim”, MDA2 records old senses close to the Latin “seek”: “trying to find out something” and “being sought after in trade”.^[7][3] The written request, a petiție, is recorded in the 19th century by Costinescu and Barcianu and is the sense Tiktin illustrates with Cererea Dv. s-a aprobat “your application has been granted”.^[8][9][2] Economics made it the term for demand, as in cerere și ofertă “supply and demand”.^[10][3] Recent compounds include cerere-tip “standard application form” and cerere-record “record demand”.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – cererea in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[12][4]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 36:4).^[2]
• 1648 – in the New Testament of 1648, MDA2's first record.^[7]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses it French “demande”.^[8]
• 1958 – cerere și ofertă “supply and demand” in the DLRM.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A request, a rugăminte: A acceptat cererea prietenului său.^[3][1]
2. A demand or claim; a requirement.^[3]
3. (economics) Demand: the total goods and services that buyers want and can afford at the market price over a given period;^[3] cerere și ofertă “supply and demand”;^[3] la cerere “on request”.^[3]
4. (law) An application to a court or state authority to have a right recognised or defended; concretely, a written petiție.^[3]
5. (technology) In the phrases cerere de oxigen “oxygen demand” of polluted water and cerere maximă de putere “peak power demand” of a power station.^[3]

Related words

• cere
• cerință
• cerșetor

Usage notes

Cerere în căsătorie is a proposal of marriage.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. cérere
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 172
4. ^ a b c d 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. cere
5. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 364
6. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 36:4
7. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 365
8. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 179
9. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 97
10. ^ a b Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 135
11. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. cérere
12. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 19:6
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 394