competiție

Forms

competiție f (plural competiții)^[1] The 19th-century form competițiune appears in Laurian and Massim's dictionary of 1871.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French compétition.^{[2][4][5][3][1]} The neologism dictionaries also name Latin competitio, and the first of them Italian competizione as well, a case of multiple etymology.^[6][7][1] French took the word in 1759 from English competition (“rivalry”), which had borrowed Late Latin competitio (“agreement; rival candidacy”) in the 17th century.^[2][8] The Latin noun comes from competō (“to seek together; to compete”), made of con- and petō (“to seek, ask for”).^[2][1][9]

Romanian peți “to ask in marriage” goes back to the same Latin verb.^[10] DELR records the verb compeți “to compete”, from Latin, with its form adapted to ⟨peți⟩.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Barcianu's dictionary of 1868, with the German glosses “joint application” and “contest”.^[3] DELR dates the word to 1871, in the form competițiune in Laurian and Massim's dictionary.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the claim of several people to the same title, office or dignity;^[4][3] MDA2 marks it as obsolete.^[4][3] From the 20th century the word means above all a contest, especially in sport: DLRLC defines it as a competition in several stages for a title or a sporting result.^[11][6] French had specialised the word for sport at the end of the 19th century.^[8] In psychology and biology it also names rivalry between people or between organisms for the same resources.^[12]

Its family came in mostly from French: competitor 1821, competitiv 1966, competitivitate 1975 and competițional 1978.^[2]

Timeline

• 1821 – competitor “rival, competitor”.^[2]
• 1868 – first record of competiție, in Barcianu's dictionary;^[3][2] compeți “to compete” the same year.^[3][2]
• 1871 – competițiune in Laurian and Massim's dictionary.^[2]
• 1966 – competitiv “competitive”.^[2]
• 1975 – competitivitate “competitiveness”.^[2]
• 1978 – competițional “of a competition”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A competition, contest, especially in sport: o competiție internațională de atletism “an international athletics competition”.^[5][7][1]
2. rivalry between people, firms or states pursuing the same advantage.^[12]
3. (obsolete) A claim made by several people to the same office or title.^[4]

Word family

• competitiv
• competitivitate
• competitor
• competițional
• compeți

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. competiție
3. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. competiție
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, 473
5. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 212
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
7. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
12. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional