director

Forms

director m (plural directori, feminine equivalent directoreasă or directoriță or directriță)^[1] Old documents have drector: „mai-marele nostru drector” “our chief director” (1724).^[2][3] Derectur: „Derecturu să află aice în Eşi” “the director is here in Iași” (1794).^[2] Drehter: „i-am dusu la domnul drehteru” “I took them to the director” (1799).^[2] The DLR explains the old variant dreptor as a blend of director with drept.^[2]

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from New Latin director, the Latin agent noun of dīrigō (“to direct, guide”), which arose in Late Latin and took on its administrative sense in Medieval Latin;^[4] DELR adds that it is also borrowed from German Direktor, and points to French directeur for the old variant stressed on the last syllable.^[4] DEX, MDA2 and the DLR give both the French and the Latin word as its source, Tiktin only the Latin one.^[5][3][2][6] Gabinschi calls it a European word of Latin origin, taken through French, German and Russian.^[7] The adjective, recorded from 1851, is the French word, which goes back to Late Latin dīrēctor (“one who directs”).^[4] The Latin noun is formed on dīrēctus with -tor.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is of 1722, in the form derector, and Tiktin also dates the word to 1722.^[4][6] In letters of 1724 and 1734 it is the administrative head of a province: „mai-marele nostru derector” “our chief director”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

By the end of the 18th century the word named the head of a school or an institution: Gheorghe Șincai signs as „directorul și catehetul numitelor școale” “director and catechist of the said schools”.^[2] Negulici in 1848 glosses it as “one who leads, rules, presides, administers”.^[8] The older sense “head of a province” went out of use.^[2][4] The adjective, from 1851, first described what gives a direction, and then what guides a line of conduct: linii directoare, idei directoare.^[4][2] Feminine forms followed: directoriță from 1812, directoare from 1875, and the colloquial directoreasă.^[4]

Timeline

• 1722 – derector, the first record.^[4][6]
• 1724 – drector “head of a province” in a letter.^[2][3]
• 1729 – derectorat, the office of director.^[4]
• 1812 – derectoriță, a woman director or a director's wife.^[4]
• 1848 – Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[8]
• 1851 – the adjective.^[4]
• 1867 – subdirector.^[4]
• 1881 – directoraș in Creangă.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Directing or leading something; showing the direction: roți directoare “steering wheels”, plan director “a map at a scale of 1:20,000”, linie directoare (geometry) “a fixed line along which another line moves to generate a surface”.^[5][3]
2. (figurative) Setting a line of conduct; guiding: principiul director al proiectului.^[5][9]

Noun

1. A person who heads an enterprise, an institution, a publication or a section of them; the post itself: director, manager, the head of a school: Directorul școlii ne-a primit.^[5][1]
2. Director de scenă: a stage director.^[3]
3. (obsolete) The administrative head of a province.^[2][4]
4. (mathematics; feminine) directoare: the curve on which the straight generators of a ruled surface rest; a directrix.^[5]
5. (electronics; neuter) An element that increases the directivity of an antenna.^[5][3]

Word family

• directoreasă
• directoriță
• directoraș
• subdirector
• codirector

Related words

• direcție
• directorat
• Latin dīrēctor

Usage notes

The masculine noun has the plural directori, the adjective and the neuter noun directoare.^[5] A separate director “directory, folder” in computing is borrowed from English directory and recorded from 1994.^[4][2][10]

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 Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. director
3. ^ 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, 721
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. director
5. ^ 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. 318
6. ^ 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. diréctor
7. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 98
8. ^ 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. director
9. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. director
10. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. directór