corect

Forms

corect m or n (feminine singular corectă, masculine plural corecți, feminine/neuter plural corecte)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French correct.^[2][3][4][1] DEX, Marcu and DELR take it as also borrowed from Latin correctus (“corrected, improved”), the learned Latin word, and DELR names German korrekt as a third model.^[2][3][4] Ciorănescu gives French alone, Tiktin Latin alone.^[5][6] The Latin adjective is the perfect participle of corrigō (“to straighten, correct”), formed from con- and regō (“to direct, guide”).^[2][7] French took it from Latin in 1512.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Petru Maior's history of 1812, which speaks of limba latinească cea îndreptată sau corectă “the corrected or correct Latin language”, glossing the new word with a native one.^[2][6][9]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was “conforming to the rules, without mistakes”, said of language, drawing and style;^[9][10] Negulici in 1848 still explains it as fără greșală “without error”.^[9][10] The moral sense “honest, of irreproachable conduct”, said of people, follows French, where it dates from the 17th and 18th centuries.^[9][8] The word is also used as an adverb: vorbea corect “he spoke correctly”.^[11] By 2002 politic corect “politically correct” was formed after English politically correct.^[12]

Related words came in at different times: corectură “proofreading” from German in 1787, corecție in 1812, corecta in 1840, and corectitudine in Eminescu in 1879.^[2]

Timeline

• 1812 – corect and corecție in Petru Maior's history.^[2][6]
• 1840 – the verb corecta “to correct”.^[2]
• 1848 – Negulici lists korrekt among the new words.^[10]
• 1879 – corectitudine “correctness” in Eminescu.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. correct: following the rules and norms of a field; as it should be; without mistakes, as in o frază corectă “a correct sentence”.^[3][13][1]
2. (of people) Of irreproachable conduct; honest, fair.^[3][14]
3. Politic corect: politically correct.^[12]

Adverb

1. Correctly, in the right way.^[11][4]

Word family

• corecta
• corectitate
• corectitudine
• incorect

Related words

• corectură
• corija
• corige
• corecție
• Latin correctus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. corect
3. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 236
4. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. corect
5. ^ 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. corect
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. corect
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. correctus
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. correct
9. ^ a b c d 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. corect
10. ^ a b c 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. corect
11. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 550
12. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. corect
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. corect
14. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. corect