disponibil

Forms

disponibil m or n (feminine singular disponibilă, masculine plural disponibili, feminine/neuter plural disponibile)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French disponible (“available”), a 19th-century neologism.^[2][3][4][1] DEX and MDN add Medieval Latin disponibilis as a second source, and DN also compares Italian disponibile.^[5][6][7]

The French adjective is borrowed from the Medieval Latin word, the adjective belonging to Latin dispōnō (“to arrange, dispose”); it is recorded about 1500, and earlier in law.^[8] DELR lists the adjective in the family of dispune, which comes from the same Latin verb.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1847.^[3] A document of 1848 already speaks of sums „disponibile”, money that can be drawn on, and Negulici's dictionary of new words lists the word the same year.^[4][9][2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is financial and material: sums, cotton or means that can be disposed of.^[4] Applied to people, it came to mean “free, not taken up”, and in the administration and the army it described an official or officer taken out of service for a time but liable to be recalled, as in the expression a pune în cadrul disponibil.^[2][10][11] CADE adds the legal sense of the share of an estate that one may freely leave by gift or will.^[12] As a neuter noun, disponibil is the money or goods an institution or person can use at a given moment.^[5][10]

The noun disponibilitate, from French disponibilité, is recorded even earlier, in 1840.^[2]

Timeline

• 1840 – disponibilitate in Poenaru, Aaron and Hill's dictionary.^[2]
• 1847 – the first record of disponibil.^[3]
• 1848 – sums „disponibile” in a document; the word in Negulici's dictionary.^[4][2]
• 1931 – CADE records the legal sense of the freely disposable part of an estate.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. available: that one can dispose of, free to be used, not assigned for the moment: locuri disponibile “free seats”.^[5][9][1]
2. Of people: not busy, free; also, taken out of a post for a time.^[5][2]

Noun

1. Money or goods that an institution, a firm or a person can use at a given moment without affecting other needs; cash in hand.^[5][10]

Related words

• disponibilitate
• dispune
• French disponible

Usage notes

A pune (or a fi, a rămâne) în cadrul disponibil is a dated expression for being put on the reserve list, out of a post but liable to be reappointed.^[10][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. dispune
3. ^ 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. disponibil
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. disponibil
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 321
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 729
10. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 131
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună
12. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească