conține

Forms

conține (third-person singular present conține, past participle conținut, third-person subjunctive conțină), 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French contenir, also borrowed from Latin contineō (“to hold together”), with its conjugation remade on the native verb ține.^[2][3][1] DELR and Tiktin name only the French verb as the model, refashioned after the native verb, while the neologism dictionaries put the Latin verb first.^[4][5][6] French borrowed the verb around 1050 from Latin, where it is formed from con- (“together”) and teneō (“to hold”), literally “to hold together”.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1828, the same year DELR gives for the noun conținut “content” in a work of Pleșoianu.^[5][4] DELR's own first record of the verb is Stamati's dictionary of 1851, and MDA2 cites Ion Ghica's letters in their 1887 edition.^[4][8] The sense was from the start “to hold, to have inside”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides “to hold” and “to be made up of”, said of books and letters, the verb took over the French sense “to restrain, to hold back”, also reflexive “to control oneself”.^[4][9] The DA calls this sense a Gallicism, Șăineanu gives it as figurative (“to restrain a crowd, one's anger”), and DELR and Tiktin mark it as old and rare.^{[9][10][4][5]} Modern dictionaries keep only the two senses of containing.^[2]

Romanian built a family on it: conținător “containing; container” (1864), the noun conținut (1828), modelled on French contenu and adapted to the participle of ține, and the 20th-century conținutism “emphasis on content in art”.^[4]

Timeline

• 1828 – first record of the verb.^[5]
• 1828 – conținut “content” in a work of Pleșoianu.^[4]
• 1851 – the verb in Stamati's dictionary, with an older variant conținea.^[4]
• 1864 – conținător in Barițiu.^[4]
• 1887 – the verb in Ion Ghica's letters to Alecsandri.^[8]
• 1978 – conținutism, a term of aesthetics.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (of a container) To hold, to be filled wholly or partly with: Sticla conține un litru de ulei.^[2][8][1]
2. (of books and texts) To be made up of, to include.^[2][8]
3. (dated) To restrain; reflexive, to control oneself.^[8][9]

Word family

• conținut
• conținutism
• conținutist
• conținutistic

Related words

• ține
• conteni

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated like ține (conțin, conține, past participle conținut). An older infinitive conținea, of the second conjugation, is the DA's headword and survives regionally.^[9][8][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 231
3. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. conține
4. ^ 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. conține
5. ^ 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. conține
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. conține
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. contenir
8. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 500
9. ^ 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. conținea
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 163