egal

Forms

egal m or n (feminine singular egală, masculine plural egali, feminine/neuter plural egale)^[1] Asachi's arithmetic of 1836 has ecval: „Dacă 6 mere s-ar fi tăiet în patru bucăți ecvale... atunce vom avea 24 bucăți” “if 6 apples were cut into four equal pieces... then we shall have 24 pieces”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French égal;^[4][5][6][2] DEX, DER and Ciorănescu name only the French word, while MDA2 adds Latin aequālis and the DLR also Italian eguale.^[4][5][6][2] DELR explains the French adjective as a borrowing of the Latin word, whose ⟨g⟩ probably follows other Romance forms such as Italian iguale; it replaced the inherited Old French forms.^[3] The Latin word is formed on aequus (“level, even, equal”).^[3][1]

The 19th-century variants ecval and ecual are learned borrowings of the Latin adjective, and egual also follows the Italian.^[3][6] Inherited Romance descendants of the Latin word include Spanish igual and Portuguese igual.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1818.^[8] DELR and MDA2 date it to 1836, in the variant ecval, in Asachi's textbook of mathematics, with the sense “of the same size, quantity or value”.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The first records are mathematical: equal pieces, equal quantities.^[2] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 explains it as “alike, matching”.^[9] The political sense, people who enjoy the same rights, grew with the derivatives egalitate (1837), egalitar (1851) and egalitarism (1870), all after French models.^[3][4] The word also came to mean “steady, unchanging” (un pas egal “an even pace”) and, in a-i fi egal, “to be all the same to someone”.^[4][10][11] As a noun it means a person of the same rank, and the equals sign.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 1818 – first record according to Tiktin.^[8]
• 1836 – ecval and the verb ecvala in Asachi's arithmetic.^[3][6]
• 1837 – ecvalitate, later egalitate “equality”.^[3]
• 1842 – inegal “unequal”.^[3]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[9]
• 1851 – egalitar “egalitarian”.^[3]
• 1870 – egalitarism.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. equal, the same as another in some respect;^[4][1] (of citizens, nations) having the same rights and duties.^[4][1]
2. (sport) a fi egal: to have the same number of points, to be level.^[4]
3. (mathematics) Having the same value;^[4][6] (of figures) coinciding when laid one on the other.^[4][6]
4. steady, unchanging, uniform; monotonous: un ritm egal.^[4]

Adverb

1. equally, evenly: Au împărțit banii egal.^[14][1]
2. a-i fi egal: to be all the same to someone, to be indifferent.^[4][14]

Noun

1. An equal, a match, a person of the same rank: fără egal “matchless”;^[4][1] de la egal la egal “as equals”.^[4][1]
2. The equals sign (=), also semn egal.^[4][13]

Word family

• egala
• egalabil
• egalitar
• egalitarism
• egalitate
• egaliza
• egalizant
• egalizator
• inegal
• inegalabil
• inegalitate
• neegalabil

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. egal
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. egal
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 344
5. ^ a b 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. egal
6. ^ 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, 791
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 238
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. egal
9. ^ a b 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
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. egal
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 461
12. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 373
13. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. egal
14. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. egal