decide

Forms

decide (third-person singular present decide, past participle decis, third-person subjunctive decidă) 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French décider, with borrowed from Latin dēcīdō as a second source, as DELR, DEX, DN, MDN, MDA2 and the DLR give it;^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} Ciorănescu and Tiktin give only the French verb.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} The Latin verb meant “to cut off”, figuratively “to settle a matter”, and is formed from dē- and caedō (“to cut”).^[2][9] French took the verb from Latin in 1403.^[10] Graur lists the verb among the neologisms of the family of the same Latin verb, which also gave ucide by inheritance.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1846, DELR in a work of Laurian.^[2][8] The sense was “to make a decision, to choose between possibilities”, as in Asachi's sentence that Coribut decided to go to Moldavia under a foreign name.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Negulici's dictionary of 1848 explains decidere by the native hotărî.^[13] The reflexive a se decide “to make up one's mind” is quoted from Negruzzi, Filimon and Caragiale on, and the transitive “to settle definitively” and “to persuade someone to do something” from the same period.^[12][3] An old variant of the first conjugation, decida, is recorded beside it.^[2]

The participle decis “resolute” took its sense from French décidé and is recorded in 1848, together with indecis and indecizie from French.^[2] The noun decizie is older, from 1794, and was borrowed separately from French décision and Latin decisio.^[2][6]

Timeline

• 1794 – the noun decizie, as deciziónă.^[2]
• 1845 – decisiv, from French décisif.^[2]
• 1846 – decide, the first record of the verb.^[2][8]
• 1848 – decis, indecis and nedecis in Negulici.^[2]
• 1868 – decizător “decisive” in Barcianu.^[2]
• 1899 – decident “one who decides”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive and reflexive) To decide, to make a decision; to choose between several possibilities; hotărî.^[3][6][1]
2. (transitive) To settle something definitively: comisia va decide data examenului “the committee will set the date of the exam”.^[3]
3. (transitive) To make someone do something; to persuade, convinge: vremea bună m-a decis să plec “the good weather made me decide to leave”.^[3][5]

Word family

• decis
• decisiv
• decizător
• decizie
• indecis
• indecizie

Related words

• ucide

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. decide
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. 277
4. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. decide
5. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. decide
6. ^ 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, 617
7. ^ 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. decide
8. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. decide
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. decido
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. décider
11. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 21
12. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. decide
13. ^ 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. 114