dezgustător

Forms

dezgustător m or n (feminine singular dezgustătoare, masculine plural dezgustători, feminine/neuter plural dezgustătoare)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian dezgusta + -ător, from the verb meaning “to disgust” with the suffix that makes agent nouns and adjectives.^[2][3][4][1] The base verb dezgusta is made of the prefix dez- and gusta “to taste”, on the model of French dégoûter.^[5] Tiktin compares the French verb and Italian disgustare.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DLR's first reference is Costinescu's dictionary of 1870; its earliest quotation is from Maiorescu, who calls something “a kind of unsalted and disgusting dough”, „un fel de aluat nesărat și desgustător”.^[2] MDA2 dates the word only to 1968, the second edition of the DN, a much later dictionary record.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective has kept the sense of its base, “causing disgust, repulsive”, from its first records to the present.^[2][3] The DLR's quotations, from Eminescu and Caragiale to Cărtărescu and Patapievici, apply it to physical things (dirt, a scar, a corpse) and to conduct or opinions alike.^[2] Older texts spell it desgustător, and an old form dezgustătoriu is used as an adverb.^[2] Followed by de and an adjective, it became an intensifier, “disgustingly (so)”, often with ironic praise, as in Vinea's dezgustător de frumos.^[2] The DLR also records an older synonym, dezgustos.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1823 – the base verb dezgusta, in a text quoted by Tiktin.^[5]
• 1870 – dezgustător in Costinescu's dictionary, the first reference in the DLR.^[2]
• 1939 – Scriban defines it as “that disgusts you”.^[7]
• 1968 – the DN's second edition, MDA2's first record.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. disgusting, repulsive: causing disgust; synonyms respingător, scârbos.^[3][8][1]
2. Followed by de and an adjective, it works as an intensifier: “disgustingly, extremely”.^[2]

Related words

• dezgusta
• dezgust
• gusta

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dezgustător
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 308
4. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. dezgustător
5. ^ 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, 694
6. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dezgusta
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 419
8. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. dezgustător