container

Forms

container n (plural containere)^[1] DELR records the pronunciations contáinăr and contéinăr besides contáiner.^[2] The spelling conteiner is recorded as a variant.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English container, an unadapted English word.^[2][5][3][1] The Marcu–Maneca dictionary also names French container as a source.^[4] The English noun comes from the verb contain, from Old French contenir, borrowed from Latin contineō (“to hold together”), formed from con- and teneō (“to hold”).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1953, in a technical dictionary, in the sense of a large receptacle for transport or storage.^[2] MDA2 takes its first record from the third edition of the Marcu–Maneca dictionary of neologisms (1978).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word came in as a transport term, a standard box or crate for carrying goods by rail; the dictionaries of neologisms add a special sense from space flight, the receptacle that holds the instruments or the payload of a rocket.^[4][6][5] A family of derivatives followed in the 1970s and 1980s, partly borrowed from English and French: transcontainer (1974), containeriza “to put into containers” (1976, in the form containerizare), minicontainer and portcontainer “container ship” (1988).^[2]

Timeline

• 1953 – first record, in a technical dictionary.^[2]
• 1974 – transcontainer, a large container for goods, from French.^[2]
• 1976 – containerizare and transcontainerizare in the newspaper Scânteia.^[2]
• 1978 – the third edition of the Marcu–Maneca dictionary of neologisms, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1988 – minicontainer and portcontainer “container ship”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shipping container: a frame or crate of standard size used to carry materials or goods.^[5][3]
2. The compartment of a rocket that holds its payload or instruments.^[5][3][4]

Word family

• containeriza
• minicontainer
• portcontainer
• transcontainer
• transcontaineriza

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. container
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 493
4. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 226
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual