consuma

Forms

consuma (first-person singular present consum, third-person singular present consumă, past participle consumat, third-person subjunctive consume), first conjugation^[1] Older variants are consoma and consumi, and the 1852 Uricariul has consumarisi: „Vinul ce vor consumarisi” “the wine that they will consume”.^[2][3]

Etymology

According to DELR it is borrowed from French consumer (“to destroy gradually, exhaust”); it is also borrowed from Latin cōnsūmō (“to spend, use up, waste, destroy”) as a learned word.^[2] The senses “to use up” and “to bring to completion” come from a second source, borrowed from French consommer, with which it was confused.^[2] Ciorănescu and Tiktin likewise see one verb resulting from the mixture of the two French verbs, and the DA takes it after both.^[4][5][3] Wiktionary gives only the first French verb.^[1] DEX and MDA2 put the senses “to use, to eat, to drink” under a headword from the second French verb, and the senses “to destroy, to wear out” under another headword from the first French verb and the Latin one.^[6][7] DELR derives the old variant ⟨consoma⟩ from the second French verb.^[2]

The first French verb is a learned loan from the Latin one.^[8] The Latin word is formed from con- and sūmō (“to take, acquire, spend”), itself built on emō (“to take, buy”).^[2][9][10] The second French verb comes from cōnsummō (“to add up, complete”), from summa (“sum”), which took on the late sense “to use up” through confusion with the Latin verb above.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is in I. Golescu's Condica, about 1832, with the variants consoma and consumi.^[2] Tiktin dates the verb to 1838.^[5] MDA2 dates the sense “to destroy, to wear out” to 1866, in I. Ionescu's book on the agriculture of Dorohoi, and the sense “to use” to Costinescu's dictionary of 1870.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Pontbriant (1862) still glossed it as French consumer “to burn to ashes, destroy, squander”.^[11] I. Ionescu wrote in 1866 that to create a value one must first destroy („a strica (a consuma)”) a great many other values.^[3] The sense “to accomplish”, mostly in the past participle, gave crima a fost consumată “the crime was committed”, and in law a marriage is consumată when it is consummated.^[3][2] The reflexive a se consuma means “to waste away, to fret”.^[3][6] The recent press uses a se consuma for “to happen, to take place”, after French se consommer.^[12]

The noun consum (1877) is not formed on the verb: Ciorănescu and DELR take it from German Konsum.^[4][2]

Timeline

• c. 1832 – first record, in I. Golescu, with the variants consoma and consumi.^[2]
• 1838 – the first record Tiktin gives.^[5]
• 1841 – consumator “consumer”.^[2]
• 1852 – consumarisi “to consume” in the Uricariul.^[3][2]
• 1866 – “to use up, destroy” in I. Ionescu.^[7][3]
• 1870 – “to use, to eat, to drink” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[7]
• 1877 – the noun consum, from German, in Eminescu.^[2]
• 1926 – consumabil “consumable”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To consume, use something to meet one's needs or to make other products: mașina consumă puțină benzină.^[6][7][1]
2. (transitive) To eat; to drink.^[6][7]
3. (transitive) To destroy, burn up: flăcările au consumat casa.^[6][13]
4. (transitive and reflexive, figurative) To exhaust, wear out; to waste away, to fret.^[6][7]
5. (transitive and reflexive) To carry out, bring to completion;^[2][7] (law) to consummate a marriage.^[2][7]
6. (reflexive) To take place, happen.^[12]

Word family

• consumator
• consumabil
• inconsumabil

Related words

• consum
• consumație
• consumpție
• French consommer
• Latin cōnsūmō

Usage notes

DEX and MDA2 treat the verb as two homonyms: consuma¹ “to use, eat, drink”, from French consommer, and consuma² “to destroy, exhaust”, from French consumer and Latin cōnsūmō.^[6][7] DELR, Ciorănescu and Tiktin treat them as one verb.^[2][4][5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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. consuma
3. ^ 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. consuma
4. ^ a b c 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. consuma
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. consuma
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. 226
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 492
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 38
10. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
11. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 150
12. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. consuma
13. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. consuma