comporta

Forms

comporta (third-person singular present comportă, past participle comportat, third-person subjunctive comporte) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French comporter, first “to carry, to bear”, whence “to include, to imply”.^[2][3][4][1] The French verb is from Latin comportō (“to carry together, to bring to one place”), formed on con- and portō (“to carry”).^[2][5] Tiktin and the DA name the Latin verb as a model beside the French one, and the neologism dictionaries add Italian comportare.^[6][7][8][9] An old variant compurta was remade on the native purta, which continues the simple Latin verb.^[2][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin both date the verb to 1805, from Obradovici's dictionary.^[2][6] The earliest sense Tiktin gives is transitive, “to allow, to admit of”, beside the reflexive a se comporta “to behave”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The transitive verb kept the French sense of what a thing brings with it: the DA quotes the Monitorul oficial on the taxes that the nature of this supply may comporta “entail”, and Șăineanu's example is a post that comportă mari cheltuieli “involves great expense”.^[7][11] This use is now bookish: MDA2 labels it literary, and Wiktionary formal and uncommon.^[3][1] The reflexive a se comporta “to behave, to conduct oneself” is the everyday sense.^[4][1]

The noun comportare “conduct” is recorded earlier than the verb, in a Vienna calendar of 1794, and was matched to comportement with a Romanian suffix; comportament itself, from the French noun, follows in Eminescu in 1883.^[2]

Timeline

• 1794 – the noun comportare “conduct” in a calendar printed in Vienna.^[2]
• 1805 – comporta in Obradovici's dictionary, the first record of the verb.^[2][6]
• 1840 – comportabil “well-behaved” in Heliade-Rădulescu.^[2]
• 1883 – comportament in Eminescu.^[2]
• 1943 – comportamental “behavioural” in Frunzetti.^[2]
• 1978 – comportamentism “behaviourism” in the third edition of the DN.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive, a se comporta) To behave, to conduct oneself in a certain way: S-a comportat frumos cu oaspeții.^[4][3][1]
2. (transitive, formal) To bring with it, to entail; to require: Proiectul comportă riscuri.^[4][3][9]

Word family

• comportabil
• comportament
• comportamental
• comportamentism
• comportare

Related words

• purta
• suporta
• French comporter

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 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. comporta
3. ^ 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, 474
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 213
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ 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. comporta
7. ^ a b 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. comporta
8. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
9. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
11. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 153