divorț

Forms

divorț n (plural divorțuri)^[1] The first record has the feminine divorția: „căria din contra nu i se îngădui divorția (dispărțire) fără învoirea bărbatului” “to whom, on the contrary, divorce was not allowed without the husband's consent” (Săulescu, 1837).^[2][3] The variant divors occurs in the 19th and 20th centuries: „Onorata doamnă ... nu voiește să admită divorsul” “the honourable lady will not agree to the divorce” (Ghica).^[2][4] Old variants also include divorciu and divorțiu;^[3][5][6] dihorț is a regional form of Vâlcea.^[3][5][6]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing with more than one source: borrowed from Latin dīvortium (“separation; divorce”) and French divorce, as DELR, the DEX and the MDN give it;^{[3][7][5][2][8]} MDA2 and the DLR add Italian divorzio.^{[3][7][5][2][8]} Wiktionary and Scriban put the French word first, and Tiktin and CADE give only the Latin one.^{[1][9][6][10]}

The Latin noun is formed from dīvertō (“to turn aside, separate”), with ⟨-uor-⟩ as its usual spelling.^[11] The verb is made of dis- and vertō (“to turn”).^[3][12] French borrowed the Latin word in 1320, and the Italian word is a learned one of the 14th century.^[13][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the word to 1837, in Gheorghe Săulescu's universal history, in the feminine form divorție.^[3][5] The passage speaks of the ancient law under which a husband could put away his wife, while she was not allowed a divorce without his consent.^[2] Tiktin's first record of divorț itself is from 1843.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The main sense has stayed the legal ending of a marriage by a court's decision.^[7][3] The phrase a da divorț “to file for divorce” is recorded in Nădejde's stories.^[6][7] The figurative sense, a split or disagreement between people, facts or ideas, follows the French word, which had taken the sense “rupture” in the 18th century.^[3][13]

The verb divorța, recorded from 1862, is borrowed from divorcer, with the ⟨ț⟩ of the noun.^[3] The adjective divorțial (1868) was a Transylvanian loan from Neo-Latin, and divorțialitate “divorce rate” came from French in 1966.^[3]

Timeline

• 1837 – divorția in Săulescu's universal history, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1843 – divorț.^[6]
• 1862 – the verb divorța, first in the form divorți.^[3]
• 1868 – divorțial “of divorce”, in Transylvania.^[3]
• 1886 – in Barcianu's Romanian–German dictionary, glossed Ehescheidung.^[14]
• 1966 – divorțialitate “divorce rate”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. divorce: the legal ending of a marriage by a court's decision: Au cerut divorțul după doi ani.^[7][5]
2. (figurative) A disagreement or split between two things, actions or ideas.^[7][5]

Word family

• divorța
• divorțial
• divorțialitate

Related words

• despărțire
• Latin dīvortium

Usage notes

A da divorț means to file for divorce, the same as the verb divorța.^[7][5] The plural is divorțuri.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. divórț
3. ^ 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. divórț
4. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 137
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 736
6. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. divórț
7. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 324
8. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. divorț
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 436
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. divorț
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dīuortium
12. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. divòrzio
13. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. divorce
14. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 191