controla

Forms

controla (third-person singular present controlează, past participle controlat), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French contrôler, as DELR, MDA2, DEX 2009, the DN and Wiktionary give it.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Tiktin says the verb was made after the French one.^[6] The French verb is formed on contrôle, earlier Old French contrerole “a duplicate register”, from contre (“against”) and rôle (“roll”); the register was kept as a scroll.^[2] The parts go back to Latin contrā and rotulus (“a roll”), from rota (“wheel”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1835, in a school regulation, in the sense “to check, supervise”.^[2] Tiktin's first date is 1840, in Poenaru, and MDA2 starts from Stamati's dictionary of 1851.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The verb came in with the noun control, recorded from 1829, and the agent noun controlor, found as early as 1793.^[2] To the sense “check, verify” it added “keep under control, dominate” and, reflexively, “to control oneself, one's gestures”.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1835 – controla in a school regulation, the first record.^[2]
• 1840 – in Poenaru, Tiktin's first record.^[6]
• 1851 – in Stamati's dictionary.^[3]
• 1879 – controlabil in Eminescu.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To check, verify, inspect.^[4][3][1]
2. (transitive) To keep under control, to dominate.^[4][3]
3. (transitive or reflexive) Of people: to control one's gestures and movements, to restrain oneself.^[4][3]

Word family

• controlabil

Related words

• control
• controlor
• French contrôler

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. control
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, 499
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 231
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
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. controla