comanda

Forms

comanda (third-person singular present comandă, past participle comandat), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French commander (“to order, command”), the source that DEX, DELR, DILF and Wiktionary name.^[2][3][4][1] MDA2 also names Italian comandare and German kommandieren, and DN the Italian verb as well.^[5][6] The oldest records came through other languages: the DA names Russian and Polish for the earliest ones, and German and Hungarian in Transylvania and, in the time of the imperial soldiers, in Wallachia.^[7] Tiktin likewise names German, Polish, Hungarian and Russian intermediaries.^[8]

The French verb goes back to Latin commandō, a late remaking of commendō (“to entrust, recommend”) after the simple verb mandō (“to entrust, order”), which is built on manus (“hand”).^[3] DELR explains the old variant comenda as reshaped after the Latin verb, and the Transylvanian variant comânda “to command, recommend” as a Romanianised form modelled on the inherited verb of the same spelling.^[3] That inherited verb, “to make offerings for the dead”, continues the same Latin verb, so the two are doublets.^[9][10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in the Lexicon Marsilianum, about 1700.^[8] MDA2's first record is a document of before 1774 printed in the Uricariul, where the Saviour „comandă cererea și permite rugăciunea” “commands asking and allows prayer”.^[5][7] DELR dates the verb from 1800, in the variant comenda, in Piuariu-Molnar.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the general sense “to order” the verb took the military senses of giving a word of command and of leading a unit.^[7][2] Tiktin and CADE then record the commercial sense “to order something from a craftsman or a shop”, as in ordering a sewing machine or books from a Paris bookseller.^[8][11] DEX adds ordering food or drink in a public place, and MDN the technical sense “to control a mechanism or a machine”.^[2][12] DELR notes that the participle comandat is used of rooms that open into one another, a sense first developed in French.^[3]

The family is older than the verb in its modern form: comendat “commander” occurs in Dosoftei in 1683, and comendie “command” in Nicolae Costin's chronicle of 1700–1712.^[3] DER and DELR treat these and the noun comandă as loans of their own, from German, Polish or Russian, not as Romanian derivatives.^[13][3]

Timeline

• 1683 – comendat “commander” in Dosoftei, the first record of the family.^[3]
• c. 1700 – the verb in the Lexicon Marsilianum.^[8]
• 1700–1712 – comendie “command” in Nicolae Costin's chronicle.^[3]
• before 1774 – comandă “commands” in a document printed in the Uricariul.^[5][7]
• 1792 – comandarisi “to order, empower”, with the Greek-type verb ending.^[3]
• 1800 – the variant comenda in Piuariu-Molnar.^[3]
• 1848 – Negulici's dictionary of neologisms glosses commandare as “to order”.^[14]
• 1856 – comandament “command, headquarters”, from French.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (military) To give an order or signal for a movement; to be in command of a unit: Locotenentul comanda o companie de infanterie.^[2][5]
2. To order, to bid someone do something.^[2][15]
3. To order an object or a piece of work from a craftsman: Și-a comandat un costum nou.^[2][5]
4. To order food or drink in a restaurant or bar.^[2][12]
5. To control a mechanism or machine.^[12]

Word family

• comanduitor

Related words

• comandă
• comânda
• comandant
• comandament
• French commander

Usage notes

The present is comand, comanzi, comandă.^[2][16] The same spelling comanda is also the articled form of the noun comandă “command, order”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 208
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. comanda
4. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria
5. ^ 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, 466
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. comanda
7. ^ a b c d 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. comanda
8. ^ 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. comanda
9. ^ 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. comînda
10. ^ 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. comânda
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. comanda
12. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. comanda
13. ^ 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. comanda
14. ^ Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. commandare
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. comanda
16. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 497