curiozitate

Forms

curiozitate f (plural curiozități)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian curiosità and a learned borrowed from Latin cūriōsitās, and later also borrowed from French curiosité: this is the order of DELR.^[2] The dictionaries weigh these sources differently: DEX gives French and Latin,^[3] MDA2 French, Latin and Italian,^[4] Tiktin Latin and Italian,^[5] Scriban Latin alone.^[6] Wiktionary gives French with a learned Latin model, and notes that the word can also be analysed as curios with the suffix -itate.^[1]

The Latin noun, “excessive eagerness for knowledge, inquisitiveness”, is formed from Latin cūriōsus + -tās.^[7][1] cūriōsus comes from cūra (“care”).^[8] The Italian noun is recorded from before 1292.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is of 1694, in the form curiozitas, in the Foletul Novel, the calendar of Constantin Brâncoveanu's court.^[2][5] Another old variant, curiozita, with the Italian ending, occurs in Anton Pann's Erotocrit.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

In 1848 Negulici gave the word two senses: the wish to see, know, learn or find out, and rare and strange things produced by nature or by art; he added that curiosity is a vice of children, who know nothing, and of fools.^[10] Both senses go back to its sources: Latin had only the eagerness to know,^[7] while Italian curiosità has meant “a rare thing” since Galileo.^[8]

From the wish to know Romanian developed “indiscretion”.^[4][3] The strangeness of a thing led to the concrete sense of a rare object or sight, often in the plural: curiozitățile orașului “the sights of the town”.^[5][11] Scriban records om plin de curiozități for a fussy, capricious person.^[6] DELR records the negative necuriozitate “lack of curiosity” from 1862.^[2]

Timeline

• 1694 – curiozitas in the Foletul Novel, the first record.^[2][5]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[4]
• 1848 – Negulici records the senses “wish to know” and “rare, curious things”.^[10]
• 1862 – the derivative necuriozitate in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. curiosity: the wish to learn about something new or unusual, and the interest it shows.^[3][4]
2. indiscretion, prying into other people's affairs.^[3][12]
3. The odd or strange character of a thing or a being.^[3][4]
4. (concrete, often in the plural) A rarity, an interesting thing seldom met with; a curio: Ghidul ne-a arătat curiozitățile muzeului.^[3][4]

Word family

• necuriozitate

Related words

• curios

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. curios
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 263
4. ^ 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, 580
5. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. curiozitate
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 382
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b 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. curiozitate
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional