discuta

Forms

discuta (third-person singular present discută, past participle discutat, third-person subjunctive discute) 1st conjugation^[1] The 19th century also conjugated it discutez, discutezi: Negulici's vocabulary of 1848 gives these forms, and MDA2 lists discutez as old.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French discuter, one of the French loans of the 19th century.^{[4][5][3][6][1]} The French verb is from Latin discutiō, whose sense moved from “to shatter, scatter” to “to search through” and, in Christian Latin, “to examine closely, debate”; it is formed from dis- and quatiō (“to shake, shatter”).^[5][7][1] The dictionary of neologisms adds a comparison with the Latin.^[8] An old variant was discutarisi.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1835–1836, in Murgu, with the sense “to examine and debate a question”.^[5] Tiktin has it from 1840, in the dictionary of Poenaru, Aaron and Hill.^[6][9] Negulici's vocabulary of 1848 explains it as examining something in detail and debating it, and warns that one should be able to discuta without quarrelling, fără a disputa.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the formal one, debating a question, a law or a plan in a group to reach a decision.^[5][3] The everyday sense “to talk, converse with someone” came later and is now the first sense in DEX.^[4][10] It can also mean to argue against someone.^[8][11]

The noun discuție was borrowed earlier, from French discussion, first as discusionă in 1794.^[5] The adjectives discutabil (1867) and indiscutabil (1873) came from French too;^[2] Romanian formed nediscutabil (1875) and rediscuta (1886–1909).^[5]

Timeline

• 1835-1836 – discuta in Murgu, the first record of the verb.^[5]
• 1840 – in the dictionary of Poenaru, Aaron and Hill.^[6]
• 1848 – in Negulici's vocabulary of loanwords, conjugated discutez.^[2]
• 1867 – discutabil.^[5]
• 1873 – indiscutabil.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To talk with someone about something; to converse: Am discutat despre vacanță. “We talked about the holiday.”^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To discuss, examine or debate a work, a project or a law in a group.^[4][3]
3. To argue, contradict someone.^[11][8]

Word family

• nediscutabil
• rediscuta
• discutant

Related words

• discuție
• discutabil
• indiscutabil
• French discuter
• Latin quatiō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. discutare
3. ^ 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, 725
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 319
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. discuta
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. discuta
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. discuta
9. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. discuta
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 128
11. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. discuta