conservă

Forms

conservă f (plural conserve)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French conserve, a neologism.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Marcu and Maneca also compare Italian conserva.^[6] The DA sets it beside the verb conserva, which belongs to the same family.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1868.^[4] MDA2's first record is Costinescu's vocabulary of 1870, where the word meant a sweet, dulceață “jam”, and a kind of syrup made from sour-cherry jam.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The early sense “jam, sweet preserve” survives in dictionaries of the early 20th century (conserve de chitră “citron preserves”), but the DA already calls it unusual, and MDA2 labels it obsolete.^[5][7][3] The sense that prevailed is food prepared to keep for a long time in tins or sealed jars, mostly in the plural.^[5][8] Șăineanu and the CADE also record a plural sense, tinted spectacles that protect the eyes from strong light, after French usage.^[7][9] In recent slang the word names a gendarmerie intervention van.^[10]

Timeline

• 1868 – the first record, according to Tiktin.^[4]
• 1870 – “sweet, jam” in Costinescu's vocabulary.^[3][5]
• 1929 – Șăineanu gives three senses: tinned food, a dry preserve, and protective spectacles.^[7]
• 1958 – the DLRM defines only the tinned food.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Tinned or preserved food: a food product treated so that, kept in special packaging or sealed jars, it stays unspoiled for a long time;^[2][3] o cutie de conserve “a tin of food”.^[2][3]
2. (obsolete) A sweet jam or fruit preserve.^[3][5]
3. (dated, plural) Tinted spectacles protecting the eyes from strong light.^[9][7]
4. (slang) A gendarmerie intervention van.^[10]

Related words

• conserva

Usage notes

The spelling is also a present-tense form of the verb conserva (el conservă “he preserves”).^[12][2]

References

1. ^ a b 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. 223
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 489
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. conservă
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. conservă
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. conservă
7. ^ a b c d Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 160
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 525
9. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. conservă
10. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. conservă
11. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. conservă
12. ^ Breban, Vasile (1980), Dicționar al limbii române contemporane de uz curent, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 116