dolar

Forms

dolar m (plural dolari)^[1] An old variant dolard had the plural dolarzi: „au giuruit un dar de 8 dolarzi fieșcăruia soldat” “they promised a gift of 8 dollars to every soldier” (1829).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English dollar, and at the same time borrowed from French dollar: DELR, MDA2, DEX and the neologism dictionaries name both sources.^{[4][3][5][6][7]} Tiktin, Scriban and Wiktionary give English alone, and the DLR gives English and compares French.^[8][9][2][1] The French word was taken in 1776 from the American English name of the currency of the United States.^[10]

English had the word from the 16th century as a name of the German silver coin.^[10] It comes from Low German daler, the Low German counterpart of German Taler, which is short for Joachimstaler, a coin struck in the 16th century from the silver of the mines of Sankt Joachimstal in Bohemia, today Jáchymov in the Czech Republic.^[4][10] Gabinschi pairs the word with taler, the same German word borrowed separately.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are of 1829, in the Iași newspaper Albina românească, which explains that the dollar is worth more than a thaler, and in the Bucharest Curierul românesc, which counts a sum in dollars.^[4][2][3] The sense was the currency of the United States.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th and early 20th century the word named a silver coin of the United States;^[9][12] Scriban values it at 5 francs 34 bani and Șăineanu at 5 francs in earlier times.^[9][12] It now names the currency of the United States and, followed by the name of the country, that of Canada, Australia and other states.^[3][5]

Derivatives followed in the 20th century: dolariza “to adopt the dollar, bring dollars into an economy” in 1947, eurodolar from English eurodollar in 1964, and dedolariza in 1991.^[4] Slang has many names for the dollar, among them verzi “greens” and verdeață.^[13]

Timeline

• 1829 – dolar and the plural dolarzi in Albina românească.^[4][2]
• 1829 – in Curierul românesc.^[3]
• 1840 – Tiktin's dated record.^[8]
• 1870 – in Costinescu's dictionary as a coin of the United States.^[14]
• 1947 – the verb dolariza.^[4]
• 1964 – eurodolar.^[4]
• 1991 – dedolariza.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The dollar, the main monetary unit of the United States.^[5][3]
2. The monetary unit of several other countries, such as Canada, Australia or Liberia.^[5][3][7]

Word family

• dolariza
• eurodolar
• dedolariza

Related words

• taler
• English dollar

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dolar
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 742
4. ^ 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. dolar
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 326
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
7. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
8. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dolar
9. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 440
10. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 169
12. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 216
13. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. dolar
14. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 353