concentra

Forms

concentra (third-person singular present concentrează, past participle concentrat), first conjugation^[1] Popular speech has concetra, cocintra and încocintra.^[2][3] Tiktin records an obsolete form conțentra.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French concentrer (“to bring to a centre”).^[3][5][6][1] Tiktin adds German konzentrieren as a model, and the dictionaries of neologisms compare Italian concentrare.^[4][7] The French verb is formed from con- and centrer (“to centre”).^[1] In Romanian it belongs to the family of centru, which DELR treats under that word, and it can be analysed as con- + centra.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1800;^[3][4] DELR's senses are “to gather into a centre”, “to fix one's attention or energy on one thing” and the military and chemical ones.^[3][4] MDA2's first record is in the works of Nicolae Bălcescu, in the edition of 1878.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is physical, “to gather in one centre or point”, as of the sun's rays in the focus of a lens; the DA quotes Bălcescu, who has the mind “concentrating” its powers within right limits.^[2] The military use, “to mass troops in a threatened region” and “to call up reservists”, reached folk song: a lad asks his sweetheart „De cînd pe mine m-o concentrat, Cîți voinici te-o sărutat?” “Since they called me up, how many lads have kissed you?”^[2][8] The reflexive a se concentra “to focus one's mind” became the everyday sense.^[6]

The chemical sense “to increase the proportion of a component in a solution” and the mining sense “to separate the ore from the waste rock” are technical additions.^[6][5] The family follows French: concentrație (1813), concentrat (1829) and concentric (1820–1830).^[3]

Timeline

• 1800 – first record.^[3][4]
• 1813 – concentrație, in the old form conțentrație.^[3]
• 1829 – concentrat “concentrate”.^[3]
• 1842 – desconcentra “to release reservists after the call-up”.^[3]
• 1848 – entered in Negulici's dictionary, “to gather in the centre; to gather one's mind on a single thing”.^[9]
• 1878 – MDA2's first record, in the edition of Bălcescu's works.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To concentrate, gather or accumulate in one place; to direct to a single point.^[6][5]
2. To call up reservists for a period of training in peacetime; to mass military units in a given zone.^[6]
3. (reflexive) to focus one's whole attention in one direction; to be absorbed in something: Nu mă pot concentra cu atâta zgomot.^[6]
4. (chemistry) to increase the proportion of a component in a solution or mixture.^[6]
5. (mining) to separate the rich parts of a raw ore from the waste.^[6]

Word family

• concentrare
• concentrat
• concentrație
• deconcentra
• neconcentrat

Related words

• centru
• centra
• concentric

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. concentra
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. centru
4. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. concentra
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 478
6. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 216
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. concentra
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 512
9. ^ 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