cultură

Forms

cultură f (plural culturi)^[1] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the word was written културэ.^[1]

Etymology

It is a neologism with several models: DELR gives borrowed from Latin cultūra, German Kultur and French culture as its sources, as Tiktin does.^[2][3] MDA2 adds Italian cultura and Russian культура (kulʹtura).^[4] The DA puts Latin first, with French and German behind the sense “civilisation” above all, while DEX and Wiktionary name French.^[5][1]

The Latin noun is formed on colō (“to till, cultivate”) with -tūra, and its first sense was the tilling of land.^[6][1] The French word is a learned 14th-century refashioning, after Latin, of Old French colture, and the German one came from Latin in the 17th century, when the word passed from farming to the cultivation of the mind.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1783, and DELR to 1786.^[3][2] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 defines it as the work and care needed to cultivate the land, and figuratively the cultivation of the mind, the sciences and the arts.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The dictionaries of the 19th and early 20th century put the farming sense first: the tilling of the soil, a cultivated field, mare cultură for large-scale farming.^[9][10][5] The sense of civilisation and of a person's learning, which the DA connects with French and German, now heads the definitions of DEX, followed by the archaeological sense of the remains of a past community.^[5][11] The adjective cultural came from French culturel in 1871, and incultură “lack of culture” is recorded from 1870.^[2]

Laboratory and sporting senses followed: the culture of bacteria, cultură fizică “physical education”, and culturism “bodybuilding”, recorded from 1971.^[12][2] Recent phrases include cultura Coca-Cola, after English Coca-Cola culture.^[13]

Timeline

• 1783 – the first record.^[3]
• 1786 – the first record in DELR.^[2]
• 1848 – Negulici defines the farming and the figurative sense.^[9]
• 1870 – incultură “lack of culture”.^[2]
• 1871 – the word in Laurian and Massim's dictionary;^[4][2] cultural from French.^[4][2]
• 1971 – culturism “bodybuilding”.^[2]
• 1973 – anticultură.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. culture: the whole of the material and spiritual values created by humanity, and the institutions that pass them on.^[11][1]
2. A person's varied knowledge; a high level of intellectual development;^[11] om de cultură “a cultivated person”.^[11]
3. (archaeology) The material and spiritual remains through which a past community is reconstructed.^[11][14]
4. The activities and patterns of behaviour of a social group, passed on by education.^[11]
5. The cultivation of land and crops; the farming work and skill it needs.^[11][4]
6. A field sown with a crop.^[14][10]
7. The rearing of animals or microorganisms; a colony of bacteria grown in a laboratory.^[14][12]

Word family

• cultural
• incultură
• anticultură
• culturism

Related words

• cult
• Latin cultūra

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. cult
3. ^ 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. cultură
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 569
5. ^ a b c 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. cultură
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. cultură
11. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 258
12. ^ a b Breban, Vasile (1980), Dicționar al limbii române contemporane de uz curent, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 132
13. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. cultură
14. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. cultură