comision

Forms

comision n (plural comisioane)^[1]

Etymology

In its current commercial senses it is borrowed from French commission; the old senses “commission, board” and “official order”, used in Transylvania, are borrowed from German Kommission.^[2][3] MDA2 and Tiktin give German and French without dividing the senses, DEX and Wiktionary French alone.^[4][5][6][1] Graur noted that CADE, the DLRM and Marcu and Maneca explain the word by French, the DA and Scriban by German and French, and Ciorănescu by German alone; since a French noun in ⟨-ion⟩ would normally give Romanian ⟨-ie⟩ or ⟨-iune⟩, he concluded that the neuter form follows a neighbouring form ending in a consonant, and favoured German.^[7] Scriban too saw German and Russian influence in it, and Gabinschi names German and Russian комиссия (komissija) as intermediaries.^[8][9]

Both source words go back to Latin commissiō, a noun of committō (“to bring together; to entrust”), from con- and mittō (“to send”).^[2][10] French had the word from the 13th century, German from the 15th.^[11][10] The doublet comisie “committee” has the same origin: DELR describes the two as specialisations, in form and sense, of the same many-sensed etymons.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is a document of 1722.^[2] Tiktin's is from 1734, in a document published by Iorga: „Am luat acum comision de la cinstita administrație” “I have now received a commission from the honourable administration”.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

In 18th-century Transylvania the word meant a commission or board and an official mandate, as German Kommission did; this use is now obsolete.^[3][4] The commercial senses came with French: an order given to a merchant to buy or sell on someone's account (a letter of 1798 asks someone to accept “a commission of a little Venetian merchandise”), then the percentage paid for such a service, and, by extension, an errand done for someone.^[3][2] The agent noun comisionar is recorded from 1777.^[2]

Timeline

• 1722 – first record, in a document.^[2]
• 1734 – comision “commission, mandate” in a document published by Iorga.^[5][3]
• 1777 – comisionar “commission agent”.^[2]
• 1792 – comision “commission, board”.^[4][3]
• 1798 – a commercial order for goods.^[3]
• 1875 – the verb comisiona, in Hasdeu.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An errand: a task given to someone to get or deliver something, and the service done.^[6][4]
2. (law) A contract by which a person trades in his own name on another's account, for a payment.^[6][4]
3. A commission: the percentage fee paid to a person or a bank for arranging a deal or providing a service.^[6][4][1]
4. (obsolete, Transylvania) A commission, a committee; an official order or mandate.^[4][2]

Word family

• comisiona
• comisionar

Related words

• comisie
• comisar
• comite

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. comision
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. comision
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 470
5. ^ 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. comision
6. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 210
7. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1975), Alte etimologii românești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. comision
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 322
9. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 83
10. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 517
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. commission