conspirație

Forms

conspirație f (plural conspirații)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French conspiration and Latin cōnspīrātiō, a learned word of the 19th century.^[2][3][4][1] Tiktin and DN name French alone.^[5][6] Wiktionary notes that it is also equivalent to conspira with the suffix -ție.^[1] The Latin noun is formed on cōnspīrō, from con- and spīrō (“to breathe, blow”); the verb first meant “to sound together”, of wind instruments, then “to agree on a common aim”, then “to conspire”.^[2][7] The French noun is itself from Latin.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates it to 1823, in a text by Vârnav, and Tiktin gives the same year.^[2][5] It meant a secret plot, the sense it still has.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Latin cōnspīrātiō first meant agreement or harmony and only then a plot.^[7] Romanian took only the political sense.^[3][2] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 defines it as a secret undertaking of several people against the government or against someone.^[8] The old variants conspirațiune and conspirăciune were used in the 19th century, the first still by Caragiale.^[2][9] The verb conspira is recorded about 1832 and conspirator in 1840.^[2]

Timeline

• 1823 – first record, in Vârnav.^[2][5]
• 1825–1829 – conspirant “conspiring”, in N. Stoica.^[2]
• c. 1832 – the verb conspira in Iordache Golescu's Condica.^[2][10]
• 1840 – conspirator.^[2]
• 1848 – defined in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[8]
• 1926 – conspirativ in Teodoreanu.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A conspiracy: a secret plot against the state, its leaders or the public order; a complot.^[3][4][1]

Related words

• conspira
• conspirator
• conspirativ
• deconspira
• conjurație

Usage notes

Conjurație and complot are near-synonyms.^[3][4] The variant conspirațiune is obsolete.^[3]

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 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. conspira
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 224
4. ^ 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, 490
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. conspirație
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. conspirație
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b 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, p. s.v. conspirație
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 527
10. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. conspira