compromite

Forms

compromite (third-person singular present compromit, past participle compromis, third-person subjunctive compromită or, obsolete, compromiță) 3rd conjugation^[1] Older and colloquial forms changed conjugation: Grigore Alexandrescu has compromita in „Pentru că de-aș face-o, eu te-aș compromita” “for if I did it, I would compromise you”, and Caragiale's vulgar compromenta in „Nu voiu să mă compromentez” “I won't compromise myself”.^[2] A form with a Greek-style suffix, comprometarisi or compromitarisi, occurs in Alecsandri: „după ce m-ai comprometarisit?” “after you have compromised me?”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French compromettre, adapted to the conjugation of trimite.^[4][3] DEX, DILF and Tiktin name Latin compromittō beside the French verb, and the neologism dictionaries of Marcu put Latin first, a case of the multiple etymology common in Romanian lexicography.^[5][6][7][8]

French borrowed the verb in 1283 from legal Latin, where it meant “to agree mutually to submit a dispute to an arbitrator”.^[9][4] The Latin verb is formed com- and prōmittō (“to promise”), itself from prō- and mittō (“to send”).^[4] The step from arbitration to risk was made in French: “to take a risk”, then “to expose to danger”, a sense of the 17th century.^[9][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb first appears in documents of 1821 in the form compromitarisi, with the suffix -arisi of verbs taken through Greek.^[4][3] The form comprometa follows in Iordache Golescu around 1832, and in 1848 Negulici's dictionary of neologisms glosses compromittere as “to put in danger”.^[4][10] MDA2's first record is from Costache Negruzzi, published in 1872: „Ca să nu compromit giuruința făcută” “so as not to compromise the promise I had made”.^[11][3]

Semantic evolution

Romanian took the verb with the senses it already had in French: to endanger something, and to damage a person's good name.^[4][2] Stamati's dictionary explained it as “to throw suspicion on someone”, and the reflexive a se compromite “to lose one's reputation, to disgrace oneself” is recorded from the 19th century on.^[2][3] The forms hesitated for several decades between the French-shaped comprometa, the hybrid compromitarisi and comprometui (1830), before compromite, conjugated like trimite, prevailed.^[4]

The legal sense of the source words lives on in compromis, recorded from 1804, which DELR takes from French compromis and not from the verb.^[4] The adjective compromițător “compromising” dates from 1857.^[4]

Timeline

• 1821 – compromitarisi in documents, the first record of the verb.^[4][3]
• 1830 – the variant comprometui.^[4]
• c. 1832 – the variant comprometa in Iordache Golescu.^[4]
• 1848 – listed by Negulici, conjugated like trimite.^[10]
• 1857 – the adjective compromițător.^[4]
• 1872 – Costache Negruzzi's works, MDA2's first record of compromite.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To compromise, to discredit: to make someone lose their good name, or to lose one's own: Nu vreau să mă compromit.^[5][11][1]
2. (transitive) To endanger, to harm; to spoil or ruin: Grindina a compromis recolta.^[5][8]

Word family

• compromis
• compromitarisi
• compromițător

Related words

• promite
• trimite

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. compromite
3. ^ 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. compromite
4. ^ 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. compromite
5. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 214
6. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. compromite
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. compromite
8. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. compromite
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b 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. 85
11. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 476