dificultate

Forms

dificultate f (plural dificultăți)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French difficulté, with Latin difficultas as a second source, as DEX, MDA2 and the neologism dictionaries give it.^[2][3][4] DLR and DELR put the Latin first, Tiktin and Scriban name only the Latin.^[5][6][7][8] DELR also records an old Transylvanian variant dificultaș, which reflects the Hungarian way of pronouncing Latin.^[6]

The Latin word is formed difficilis (“difficult”) with the suffix -tās.^[9][1] The French word came through Old French from the same Latin word.^[1] In Romanian the noun belongs with dificil, in whose family DELR lists it.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Molnar's Romanian translation of Millot's universal history (1800), in the sense “difficulty, doubtful point”: „Această dificultate sau lucru cu îndoială au făcut a să naște atâtea tomuri de cărți pline de sisteme şi de păreri” “this difficulty, or doubtful matter, has given rise to so many volumes full of systems and opinions”.^[5][3][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Negulici (1848) still glossed the word with native equivalents, greutate and anevoință.^[10] Costinescu (1870) adds the senses “objection, question” and “dispute”, with the phrase a avea dificultăți cu cineva “to have difficulties with someone”, modelled on French.^[11] The sense “disagreement” is still given by Șăineanu, Scriban and CADE.^[12][8][13] From “difficulty” the word also came to mean an obstacle, and the phrase a face dificultăți “to raise obstacles” became fixed.^[2][14]

DELR dates two related borrowings: dificultos “difficult”, from French, in 1870, and the rare verb dificulta “to make difficulties”, from Italian, in Eminescu in 1881.^[6]

Timeline

• 1800 – first record, in Molnar's translation of Millot.^[6][3][7]
• 1848 – listed by Negulici, with the Latin difficultas.^[10]
• 1862 – Pontbriant gives it as a Latin word.^[15]
• 1870 – the phrase a avea dificultăți cu cineva in Costinescu;^[11] dificultos “difficult”.^[11][6]
• 1881 – the verb dificulta in Eminescu.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. difficulty, the trouble of doing something: Merge cu dificultate. “He walks with difficulty.”^[2][3]
2. An obstacle or hindrance;^[2][14] a face (or a crea) dificultăți: to put obstacles in someone's way, to resist.^[2][14]
3. a avea dificultăți cu cineva: to have a disagreement with someone.^[3][8]

Related words

• dificil
• dificultos
• Latin difficultas

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 314
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 711
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. dificultate
5. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dificultate
6. ^ 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. dificil
7. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dificultate
8. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 425
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b 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. dificultate
11. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 338
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 209
13. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. dificultate
14. ^ 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, 113
15. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 221