element

Forms

element n (plural elemente)^[1] Old forms include elemânt, in Șincai: „Plântele și ierburile încă ar seca de le-ar lipsi elemântul sau stihia aceasta” “plants and grasses would dry up if they lacked this element”.^[2][3] The old plural was elementuri: „toate elementurile să războiesc” “all the elements make war” (Cantacuzino).^[2][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin elementum, a learned word, with French élément as a second model.^[5][4][6] Tiktin gives only Latin and Wiktionary only French; the DLR adds Italian elemento and German Element.^[3][1][2] For the first record DELR assumes a Slavonic or Ukrainian intermediary.^[5]

The Latin word is of uncertain origin; it renders Ancient Greek στοιχεῖον (stoikheîon), whose first sense was a member of a row, a letter of the alphabet.^[5] Hence Diels's view that the Latin word came through Etruscan from ἐλέφας (eléphas, “ivory”), after letters made of ivory.^[5] French has had the word since 881.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form elament of 1642, in the Govora Evanghelie învățătoare: an isolated record, probably a misprint, after which the word is found again about 1770.^[5][3] The first sense was one of the four elements of ancient natural philosophy, earth, water, air and fire.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Old Romanian also called the elements stihii, and Șincai glosses one word with the other.^[2] From the four elements came the plural for the forces of nature.^[5][6] In 1848 Negulici defined the word as a simple body that composes mixed ones, a principle of an art or science in the plural, and, figuratively, the place or company one likes best: a se afla în elementul său “to be in one's element”.^[8]

The sense of a component part, of a chemical element and of a member of a group belong to the modern language.^[6] The masculine plural elemenți is used for the sections of a radiator.^[6][5] In police slang element is a disreputable individual.^[9] Derivatives followed: elementar from 1780–1790 and elemental from 1907.^[5]

Timeline

• 1642 – elament in the Govora Evanghelie învățătoare, an isolated record.^[5][3]
• c. 1770 – the word in a translation of Oxenstierna.^[5]
• 1780–1790 – elementar “elementary”, in Amfilohie.^[5]
• 1848 – Negulici defines the chemical and the figurative sense.^[8]
• 1907 – elemental in Caragiale.^[5]
• 1937 – bioelement.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A component: a part of a whole; a piece or set of pieces of a construction.^[6][1]
2. (masculine) One of the sections of a radiator.^[6]
3. A person who belongs to a group.^[6]
4. (ancient philosophy) Each of the four elements, fire, water, air and earth, thought to make up all bodies; in the plural, the forces of nature.^[6][5]
5. The environment in which a being lives or feels at home.^[6]
6. (chemistry) A substance that cannot be broken down into simpler ones by ordinary chemical means.^[6][5]
7. (usually plural) The basic notions or principles of a discipline.^[5][10]
8. An electric cell, or a cell of a battery.^[10][5]

Word family

• bioelement
• elementar
• fotoelement
• macroelement
• microelement
• oligoelement
• radioelement
• termoelement

Related words

• Latin elementum

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. element
3. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. element
4. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 800
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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. element
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 349
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. element
10. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. element