diferență

Forms

diferență f (plural diferențe)^[1] Older forms are diferenție and diferință: „Cunoscut-ai câtă diferenție este de la lumina ceasta lumească până la cea cerească” “have you known how great the difference is between this worldly light and the heavenly one” (Dosoftei).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin differentia (“difference, diversity”), also borrowed from French différence.^[4][5][6][1] DELR adds German Differenz and possibly Italian differenza;^[1] Tiktin takes it from New Latin, later also through other languages.^[3][2] Wiktionary notes that it can be analysed as diferi with the suffix -ență.^[1]

The Latin noun is formed on differēns, the present participle of differō (“to carry apart; to differ”), with -ia.^[7][1][8] French took the same Latin word about 1160, as Old French diferance.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dosoftei's Viața și petrecerea sfinților, in the life for 1 March, in the form diferenție and with the gloss dessămănare “unlikeness”;^[5] Tiktin dates the passage 1683, DELR 1686.^[2][3] MDA2's first record is a treatise on sowing flax printed in Lviv in 1804.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the old language it meant both unlikeness and a dispute, a disagreement.^[3] The mathematical sense, the result of a subtraction, spread with the arithmetic textbooks of the early 19th century, where Asachi and Poenaru give it beside native rămășiță “remainder”.^[6] A document of 1809 uses it for a sum of money that remains over.^[6] Later came the logical diferență specifică, diferență de nivel in geography, and price fluctuation on the stock exchange and at cards.^[4][5][10]

Timeline

• 1683–1686 – diferenție in Dosoftei's lives of the saints, the first record.^[2][3]
• 1804 – a treatise on sowing flax printed in Lviv.^[5]
• 1809 – a sum of money left over, in an economic document.^[6]
• 1832 – the mathematical compound echidiferință in Heliade-Rădulescu.^[3]
• 1840 – the verb diferenția.^[3]
• 1849–1852 – diferend “dispute” in Bălcescu.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A difference: what distinguishes one being or thing from another; unlikeness, discrepancy.^[4][5][1]
2. (logic) diferență specifică: the feature that sets a concept apart from the others of its nearest genus.^[4]
3. (mathematics) The result of a subtraction, the remainder.^[4][5]
4. (geography) diferență de nivel: the difference in altitude between two points.^[4]
5. Fluctuation of prices on the stock exchange or at games of chance.^[5][10]

Related words

• diferi
• diferit
• diferenția
• diferend
• Latin differentia

Usage notes

Cu diferența că means “except that, with the difference that”.^[5][10] Examen de diferență is the exam a pupil or student takes on moving to a school of a different profile.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. diferență
3. ^ 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. diferi
4. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 313
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 711
6. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. diferență
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 112