cert

Forms

cert m or n (feminine singular certă, masculine plural cerți, feminine/neuter plural certe)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin certus (“sure, fixed”), a learned borrowing of the 19th century.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Marcu also names Italian certo as a model.^[6] The Latin adjective was originally the past participle of cernō (“to sift, distinguish”).^[3][7][8] It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *krito- (“sifted”), and Ancient Greek κριτός (kritós, “separated”) is a cognate.^[7]

Romanian has older words from the same Latin family: cerne “to sift” is inherited from the same Latin verb, and the verb certa “to scold, quarrel” comes from certō (“to contend”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1836, in the variant țert, with the sense “undoubted, sure”.^[3] Tiktin's first record is in Barcianu's dictionary of 1868.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the Latin sense “certain, beyond doubt”.^[5][4] Tiktin notes that it stands after its noun, as in un fapt cert “an established fact”, and records the legal phrase dată certă, an officially attested date.^[9] Scriban and the CADE add the sense “fixed, determined”.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 1836 – first record, in the variant țert.^[3]
• 1836 – certitudine “certainty”, also first as țertitudine.^[3]
• 1837 – certificat “certificate”.^[3]
• 1846 – incert “uncertain”.^[3]
• 1848 – certifica “to certify”.^[3]
• 1868 – cert in Barcianu's dictionary.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. certain, sure: that cannot be doubted.^[5][4] Victoria lor e certă. “Their victory is certain.”^[5][4][1]
2. Fixed, settled, determined: dată certă “a fixed (attested) date”.^[9][11][10]

Related words

• cerne
• certa
• certitudine
• incert
• certifica
• Latin certus

Usage notes

Older dictionaries list the verb certa “to scold, quarrel” under its first-person form cert: Cihac and Pușcariu give it from Latin certare.^[12][13] It is a separate word with its own entry.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. cert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. cert
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 366
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 173
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. cert
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 31
9. ^ 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. cert
10. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 261
11. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. cert
12. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 52
13. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 29