corupt

Forms

corupt m or n (feminine singular coruptă, masculine plural corupți, feminine/neuter plural corupte)^[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Romanian corupe, as Ciorănescu, MDA2, DEX and Tiktin explain it.^[2][3][4][5] The verb corupe was taken in the 19th century from Latin corrumpō (“to break up, to spoil”) and French corrompre, and was made to conjugate like rupe “to break”.^[6][2][4] The Latin verb is made of con- and rumpō (“to break”).^[6]

The dictionaries of neologisms take the adjective straight from corruptus, and Wiktionary gives both explanations.^[7][8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the adjective to Bobb's dictionary of 1822, the same year DELR gives for the verb, recorded there also as corumpe.^[5][6] MDA2 cites Stamati's dictionary of technical and difficult words (Iași, 1851) and records the old variants conrupt and corumpt.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The early senses were concrete: food that had gone bad, a thing that had lost its original nature or purpose, and a misspelt or garbled word.^[3] The moral sense, “depraved, perverted”, became the main one;^[3] Tiktin quotes junii corupți “the corrupt young men” from Eminescu.^[5][3] It also means “bribed, open to bribes”.^[3][5] Of words and texts it still means “distorted”.^[4]

Timeline

• 1822 – the first record, in Bobb's dictionary.^[5]
• 1822 – the verb corupe, also corumpe, in the same dictionary.^[6]
• 1838 – the noun corupție “corruption”, from French.^[6]
• 1851 – in Stamati's dictionary, with the variants conrupt and corumpt.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of people) Morally depraved; dissolute, perverted.^[4][3]
2. Bribed or open to bribes: un funcționar corupt.^[3][5]
3. (of words, phrases, texts) Distorted, garbled.^[4][7]

Related words

• corupe
• corupție
• rupe
• Latin corruptus

Usage notes

MDA2 also records an old neuter noun corupt (plural corupturi) “spoiling, corruption”, used of food.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. corupe
3. ^ 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, 518
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 240
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. corupt
6. ^ a b c d e 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. corupe
7. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. corupt
8. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. corupt