depozit

Forms

depozit n (plural depozite)^[1] Documents of the early 19th century use the Greek-shaped variant depoziton: „atunci să numeaşte pus în păstrare sau depoziton” “then it is called placed in keeping, or a deposit” (1818).^[2] Tiktin also records the obsolete forms depozito and depoziton.^[3]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowed from Latin dēpositum (“something deposited, a trust”), the neuter of the past participle of dēpōnō (“to put down, lay aside”), itself from pōnō (“to put”).^[4][5][6][1] In Latin the noun meant money or goods placed in another's safekeeping.^[7] DELR and Tiktin also name German Depositum and Italian deposito as models, and Gabinschi takes it from Latin through Italian.^[4][3][8] Some senses, the geological one in particular, follow French dépôt.^[4][6][2]

The old variant depoziton was taken from Modern Greek ντεπόζιτον (ntepóziton), after Ursu.^[4] The French word, borrowed directly, gave the doublet depou.^[9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Latin-shaped depozitum in a marginal gloss of Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints (1683).^[4] The form depozit, meaning a thing left in someone's keeping, appears in a judicial regulation of 1787.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense, a thing entrusted to someone for safekeeping, came first.^[4][2] A legal manual of 1814 defines it: „Depozit iaste, când dă şi încredinţează cineva un lucru la altul ca să i-l păzească” “a deposit is when someone gives and entrusts a thing to another to keep for him”.^[2] By 1830 it also meant money deposited with an institution.^[2][6]

After French dépôt it came to mean the place where goods are stored, a warehouse, and a military unit that supplies the army with materials and munitions.^[4][6][10] The geological sense, a layer of sediment, also follows French.^[4] Scriban recorded further uses: a recruiting office, the archive of a regiment, and in medicine an abscess.^[10] Depozit legal is the legal deposit of printed books with the great public libraries.^[6][5]

Timeline

• 1683 – depozitum in a marginal gloss of Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.^[4]
• 1784 – depozitorium, later depozitoriu “storehouse”, in a customs regulation.^[4]
• 1787 – depozit “a thing deposited” in a judicial regulation.^[4][3]
• 1804 – depozitar “depositary”.^[4]
• 1817–1818 – the variant depoziton in legal documents.^[2]
• 1828 – the verb depozitarisi, from 1830 depozita “to store”.^[4]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms, as a thing entrusted to someone's keeping.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A warehouse or storehouse: a place or building where goods, building materials and the like are kept: un depozit de lemne.^[6][5]
2. (military) A unit that supplies the army with materials and munitions.^[6][5]
3. Something left for safekeeping; especially money or securities placed in a bank, a deposit.^[6][5] În depozit means “in safekeeping”.^[6][5]
4. Depozit legal: the legal deposit of copies of every printed book with the great public libraries.^[6]
5. (geology) A sediment of material from weathered rock or of organic remains, on the bottom of a body of water or on land.^[6][12]

Word family

• depozant
• depozita
• depozitar

Related words

• depou
• Latin dēpositum

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. depózit
3. ^ 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. depózit
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. depózit
5. ^ 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, 648
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 292
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 92
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 88
10. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 405
11. ^ 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. deposit
12. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. depozit