contabil

Forms

contabil m or n (feminine singular contabilă, masculine plural contabili, feminine/neuter plural contabile)^[1] The DA has the French-like spelling comptabil: „Titlul de comptabil este cu totul opus țiitorului de registre” “the title of accountant is quite the opposite of bookkeeper”.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French comptable, with Italian contabile as a second model.^[3][4][5][1] Tiktin, Scriban and the DLRM name French alone.^[6][7][8] The French word is formed on compter (“to count”) with -able, and the Italian one is itself taken from French, before 1812.^[1][9] Graur places it in the family of Latin computō (“to reckon”), beside cont, conta and contor.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the noun “bookkeeper, accountant” to 1847.^[6] MDA2's first record, a Sahia story, is from a modern edition of 1948.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 has it as an adjective, “bound to render account, answerable”, as well as the noun “reckoner”.^[11] The DA records the clerk of an office or bank who keeps the accounts, the army's paymaster officer, and expert-contabil “chartered accountant”.^[2] Today the adjective means “of accounting”.^[3]

Timeline

• 1847 – the noun, “bookkeeper”.^[6]
• 1870 – Costinescu has the adjective “answerable” and the noun.^[11]
• 1939 – Scriban gives the noun, “a person who keeps the accounts”.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to accounting: evidență contabilă “accounting records”.^[3][12]

Noun

1. An accountant, bookkeeper: a qualified person who keeps the accounts of a firm or institution.^[3][4][1]

Related words

• cont
• conta
• French comptable

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. contábil
3. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 226
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, 493
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. contabil
6. ^ 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. contábil
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 338
8. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. contabil
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 80
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 241
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 532