concepe

Forms

concepe (third-person singular present concepe, past participle conceput, third-person subjunctive conceapă) 3rd conjugation^[1] An older variant is concipe.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin concipiō, a Latin neologism, with the senses of French concevoir and also of German konzipieren.^[2][4][5][1] MDA2 and DEX name the Latin and French verbs together.^[3][6] The Latin verb meant “to take in, contain”, and, above all with animō or mente, “to conceive in the mind”; it is formed from con- and capiō (“to take”).^[2][7] The vowel ⟨e⟩ of the Romanian form is a Romanization after the inherited verbs începe and pricepe, and the verb is conjugated like them.^[2][1][5] The French verb is also from Latin, recorded about 1119.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is of 1799, in Paul Iorgovici's list of new words he proposed to Romanian; the next is of 1844.^[2][5] MDA2's first record is Hasdeu's Istoria critică a românilor (1875).^[3]

Semantic evolution

Romanian took over both sides of the French verb: to conceive a child and to form an idea or plan.^[9][6] Pontbriant's dictionary of 1862 glosses it “to conceive, understand”.^[10] In Transylvania it also meant to draft a document, and the German-influenced concipia (1906) and conțipist “clerk who drafts documents”, from German Konzipist, belong to the same office language.^[2][4] The phrase de neconceput means “unthinkable, impossible”.^[6]

Timeline

• 1791 – conțeptum, the first form of the related noun concept.^[2]
• 1799 – in Iorgovici's list of proposed new words.^[2][5]
• 1822 – concepție in Bobb's dictionary.^[2]
• 1862 – in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[10]
• 1874 – the noun conceput.^[2]
• 1906 – concipia “to draft”.^[2]
• 1964 – anticoncepțional “contraceptive”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To imagine, design or think up something new.^[6][1]
2. (transitive) To form an idea of something; to understand: de neconceput “unthinkable”.^[6]
3. (transitive) To express or word in a certain way.^[6][11]
4. (intransitive, of a woman) To conceive, become pregnant.^[6][1]

Word family

• concept
• conceptual
• concepție
• conceput

Related words

• începe
• pricepe
• Latin concipiō

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 l 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. concepe
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, 478
4. ^ a b 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. concepe
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. concépe
6. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 216
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. concipiō
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. concevoir
9. ^ 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. concepe
10. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 147
11. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. concepe