datora

Forms

datora (third-person singular present datorează, past participle datorat), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian dator (“owing, indebted”) + -a.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Ciorănescu and DEX give an older fourth-conjugation form datori beside it.^[6][2] The adjective continues Vulgar Latin *dēbitōrius, a form for Latin dēbitor (“debtor”), from dēbeō (“to owe”).^[5][6] According to DELR its modern vowel comes from confusion with a homonymous agent noun “giver”, formed on da.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, a Romanian–Latin glossary of the second half of the 17th century.^[4] DELR's first record is the form detori in Samuil Micu's dictionary (1780–1801).^[5] Tiktin dates it to 1825, the Lexicon de la Buda.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is owing money or goods.^[2][7] From it came owing a moral or legal duty and owing gratitude: Îți datorez fericirea mea “I owe you my happiness”, as Tiktin translates it.^[3][2] The reflexive a se datora, with the cause in the dative, means “to be due to, be explained by”, which MDA2 marks as rare.^[4][2] Both presents are used, datorez and datoresc.^[2][3] DELR notes that datori now keeps the figurative sense.^[5] The preposition datorită “thanks to, owing to”, recorded from 1878 in Eminescu, is the feminine participle of datori.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1650–1700 – in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, the first record.^[4]
• 1780–1801 – detori in Micu's dictionary.^[5]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[3]
• 1878 – the preposition datorită in Eminescu.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To owe someone a sum of money or a good: Îi datorez vecinului două sute de lei.^[2][1]
2. (transitive) To owe a moral or legal duty, to be indebted to someone for something: Îi datorăm mult profesorului nostru.^[2][4]
3. (reflexive, with the dative) To be due to, to have as its cause: Întârzierea se datorează ceții.^[2][4]

Word family

• datorare
• datorat
• datorită

Related words

• datoraș
• datorie
• datornic
• dator

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 271
3. ^ 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. datora
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, 602
5. ^ 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. dator
6. ^ 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. dator
7. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. datora