coincidență

Forms

coincidență f (plural coincidențe)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French coïncidence, as DELR, MDA2, DEX and Tiktin agree; the DN also compares Italian coincidenza.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The French word is borrowed from Medieval Latin coincidentia.^[1] Scriban derived it inside Romanian from coincident.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to about 1830, and DELR's first record is Poenaru's of 1837, in the sense of a chance match of two things or events.^[5][2] The early texts also spell it coencidență, coencidenție, coincidință and coincidinție;^[2][5] Tiktin cites coencidenție from Asachi.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Tiktin has both the coming together of events and a sense “congruence”.^[5] CADE separates the state of two things that coincide, a happening at the same time, and in geometry the exact superposition of two figures, a sense MDA2 keeps first.^[8][3] Today the usual sense is the chance meeting of events, as in prin coincidență “by coincidence”.^[4][9]

Timeline

• c. 1830 – Tiktin's date for the word.^[5]
• 1837 – in Poenaru, DELR's first record.^[2]
• 1851 – the adjective coincident.^[2]
• 1862 – in Pontbriant's Romanian–French dictionary, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it “a falling together, a meeting”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The fact of coinciding; a (chance) coincidence of things, events or facts.^[4][3][1]
2. (geometry) The exact superposition of two figures; congruență.^[3][8]

Related words

• coincide
• coincident

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. coincide
3. ^ 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, 457
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 203
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. coincidență
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. coincidență
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 314
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. coincidență
9. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. coincidență
10. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 117