dona

Forms

dona (third-person singular present donează, past participle donat), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dōnō (“to give as a present”), a learned loan, and was also borrowed from French donner (“to give”): DEX, MDA2 and the DLR name both, and Tiktin gives Italian donare.^[2][3][4][5] DER names only the Latin verb, dating it to the 19th century, and Wiktionary only the French one.^[6][1] DELR prefers Latin, noting that the French verb has the wider sense “to give”.^[7] The Latin verb is formed on dōnum (“gift”),^[8][1] an old derivative of the root of dō (“to give”).^[7] The isolated 18th-century variant ⟨donatisi⟩ follows the verbs in ⟨-atisi⟩ taken from Greek, or a rare New Latin donatō.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the variant donatisi, from the second half of the 18th century; the form dona appears in Bărnuțiu (1855–1864).^[7] Tiktin's first record is Barcianu's dictionary of 1868.^[5] The sense was legal from the start: to give property to someone without payment.^[7][9]

Semantic evolution

Besides the general “to give as a gift”, the verb names the legal act of handing over property by deed, as when a ruler gives villages to a church.^[4][2] In the 20th century it was extended to blood and organs given for medical use.^[7][3] MDA2 also records a rare old sense “to endow”.^[3] Several legal words of the family came in earlier than the verb: donatar “donee” in Șincai (1806) and donariu “votive gift” (1855).^[7]

Timeline

• 1750–1800 – the variant donatisi.^[7]
• 1806 – donatar “donee” in Șincai.^[7]
• 1855 – donariu “votive offering; donation”.^[7]
• 1855–1864 – the form dona in Bărnuțiu.^[7]
• 1868 – doná in Barcianu's dictionary.^[5]
• 1931 – CADE: “to give, to make a donation”, a legal term.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give as a gift, to make a donation; especially, to transfer property by an official act to a person or an institution without payment: Pictorul și-a donat colecția orașului natal.^[2][3][1]
2. To donate blood or an organ for medical use.^[3][7]
3. (rare, old) To endow someone with money or goods.^[3]

Word family

• donatar
• donativ
• donatrice
• donație
• donator

Related words

• da
• dar
• Latin dōnō

Usage notes

MDA2, the DLR and DELR have a separate noun dona, a title given to noble women in Spain and Portugal before the first name (dona Elvira), recorded from 1829; it comes from Spanish doña and Italian donna and is also written donna.^[3][4][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 327
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, 745
4. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dona
5. ^ 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. doná
6. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. dona
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. dona
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească