conștient

Forms

conștient m or n (feminine singular conștientă, masculine plural conștienți, feminine/neuter plural conștiente)^[1] An older form is conscient.^[2][3] The Latinists also used conștiu: Eminescu writes „deplin conștiu despre îndelungatele lui vise” “fully aware of his long dreams”.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French conscient, reshaped after ști (“to know”) and știință.^[6][7][3] DELR and Wiktionary name a second, learned source, borrowed from Latin cōnsciēns.^[2][1] The Latin is the present participle of cōnsciō (“to know well”), formed from con- and sciō (“to know”).^[2][1]

The older Latinist conștiu was taken from cōnscius instead, with Italian conscio compared.^[5][4] conștiință is earlier, recorded from 1679, taken from Latin cōnscientia and French conscience, likewise adapted after the same verb.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1871, in Laurian and Massim's dictionary and in Eminescu respectively.^[2][5] The DA's earliest quotation, from Laurian and Massim, has the sense “aware”: popor conștient de misiunea sa “a people aware of its mission”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In philosophy it was opposed to inconștient: having full consciousness, as when Maiorescu writes that conscious will serves the passions.^[4] By extension it came to mean aware of the value of something or of one's own powers, and of the part one has to play in society.^[4][6]

The family grew with the word: anteconștient (1888), inconștient, adapted from French inconscient (1930), subconștient (1932) and the verb conștientiza “to become aware” (1972).^[2]

Timeline

• 1679 – cuștiință, an early form of conștiință, in Dosoftei.^[2]
• 1818 – conștiincios “conscientious”.^[2]
• 1871 – conștient, the first record.^[2][5]
• 1888 – anteconștient, in Maiorescu.^[2]
• 1930 – inconștient as an adjective and noun, in Arghezi.^[2]
• 1932 – subconștient.^[2]
• 1972 – the verb conștientiza.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of people) conscious, aware of the world around one; having consciousness.^[6][1]
2. Aware of one's own abilities and of one's role in society.^[6][3]
3. (of human activity) Done to reach ends set in advance, deliberate.^[6]

Word family

• inconștient
• subconștient
• conștientiza

Related words

• ști
• știință

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. conștiință
3. ^ 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, 493
4. ^ a b c d e 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. conștient
5. ^ 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. conștiént
6. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 226
7. ^ 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. conștient