dansator

Forms

dansator m (plural dansatori, feminine equivalent dansatoare)^[1] Older texts have the forms danțator, danțător and dănțător: Dacia literară describes a dancer who „trăgea după sine cu o mână zdravănă tot lanțul dănțătorilor” “pulled the whole chain of dancers after him with a strong hand”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian dansa + -tor.^{[2][4][5][6][1]} The verb dansa is from French danser, and the older forms with ⟨ț⟩ follow its popular variant danța.^[4][4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to 1804.^[6] DELR's first record is in Alecsandri, 1845, and MDA2's in Dacia literară, quoted from its 1859 edition, with the old form dănțători.^[2][4][3] The sense was the same as now: a person who dances.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From anyone dancing at a ball the word came to mean also a professional dancer, and MDA2 records the special sense “ballet dancer”.^[4][7][3] The feminine dansatoare is common in the literature of the 20th century, in Rebreanu, Minulescu and Sadoveanu.^[3] It is also used as an adjective.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1804 – the first record.^[6]
• 1845 – dansator in Alecsandri.^[2]
• 1859 – dănțători in Dacia literară (second edition).^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dancer: a person who dances.^[5][4]
2. A professional dancer; especially a ballet dancer.^[5][4]

Adjective

1. Who dances.^[4][2]

Related words

• dans
• dănțui

References

1. ^ a b c 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. dansa
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dansator
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 598
5. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 270
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. dansator
7. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. dansator