chitanță

Forms

chitanță f (plural chitanțe)^[1] Old variants include cvitanție, as in a document of 1848: „S-au dat această cvitanție din partea isprăvniciei” “this receipt was issued by the district office”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French quittance,^[4][5][6][1] but the word reached Romanian by several routes.^[2] DELR takes the variants with ⟨cf⟩ and ⟨cv⟩ (⟨cfitanție⟩, ⟨cvitanță⟩) to Medieval Latin quietantia and to Russian квитанция (kvitancija).^[5] Ciorănescu points to Italian quitanza of the 19th century, comparing the French and Russian words;^[7] MDA2 names Latin, Italian and French,^[3] and Tiktin the same Latin word through various intermediaries.^[8]

The French noun is formed on quitter (“to release from a debt”) with the suffix -ance.^[1] Graur traces its base quitte (“quits”) to Latin quiētus (“at rest”), from quiēs (“rest”), the family that also gave Romanian chit and achita.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and DELR date the word to 1732, in the variant cfitanție “receipt”.^[8][5] MDA2's first record is the Moldavian civil code of 1833, which defines a cvitanție as a written certificate given by the one who has received what he was owed.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The many variants (cfitanță, cfitanție, chitanție, citanță, cvietanție, cvitanță, fitanță) show the different routes by which the word came in.^[3][5] The sense has stayed that of a written acknowledgement that money or goods have been received;^[2][4] by analogy it also covers a note acknowledging that something has been lent for use and must be returned.^[2] A folk idiom recorded by Pamfile, a vorbi fără chitanță “to speak without a receipt”, meant to speak plainly.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1732 – cfitanție in a document, the first record.^[8][5]
• 1833 – cvitanție in the Moldavian civil code.^[3][2]
• 1848 – cvitanție in a document of a district office.^[2]
• 1903 – the derivative chitanțar “receipt book”.^[5]
• 1930 – the derivative chitanțier “receipt book”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A receipt: a written document proving that a sum of money or goods have been received.^[4][3][10]
2. A note acknowledging that an object has been received on loan, to be returned.^[2]

Word family

• chitanțier

Related words

• chit
• achita

Usage notes

Scriban notes that the word was formerly also written cvit- and cfit-, and that the popular form of his day was fitanță.^[11] The idiom a vorbi fără chitanță “to speak plainly” is obsolete.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. chitanță
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 388
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 180
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. chit
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. chitanță
7. ^ 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. chitanță
8. ^ 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. chitanță
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 78
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 416
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 274