emoție

Forms

emoție f (plural emoții)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French émotion, probably also borrowed from Italian emozione.^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary names only the Italian word, and the DLR adds German among the possible sources.^[1][6]

The French noun, at first “disturbance”, was formed on émouvoir (“to move, stir”) on the model of the pair mouvoir and motion.^[2][1] The verb comes from Old French esmouvoir (“to set in motion; to stir”), from Vulgar Latin *exmoveō, made of ex- and moveō (“to move”).^[2] The Italian word is a 17th-century loan from French.^[7][8]

The first recorded form is a one-off romanised form with the native prefix în- in place of the Latin one.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is înmociune, a hapax in a calendar printed in Vienna in 1794.^[2] The learned form emoțiune follows in Laurian in 1846, and emoție in Negulici's dictionary of new words in 1848, glossed “disturbance; a movement in the humours, the body or the soul”.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Negulici's gloss still shows the older sense of a disturbance or stirring, of the body as much as of the mind.^[9] In the 19th century the word took the psychological sense of a sudden, short affective reaction, which DEX now defines as one of moderate intensity accompanied by changes in the body, and by extension any affective reaction.^[6][3] In the plural, emoții is the nervousness before an examination or a performance.^[4] The phrase emoție estetică names the experience of contemplating a work of art.^[10]

The family grew from French models: emoționa in 1848, emoționant in 1874, emoțional in 1889 and emotiv in 1892.^[2]

Timeline

• 1794 – înmociune in a Vienna calendar, the first record.^[2]
• 1846 – emoțiune in Laurian.^[2]
• 1848 – emoție and the verb emoționa in Negulici's dictionary.^[2][9]
• 1871 – emotivitate in Laurian and Massim's dictionary.^[2]
• 1874 – emoționant in the newspaper Românul.^[2]
• 1889 – emoțional.^[2]
• 1892 – emotiv in Convorbiri literare.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. emotion: an affective reaction of moderate intensity and fairly short duration, often accompanied by changes in the body; by extension any feeling.^[3][1]
2. Nervous excitement, agitation, especially in the plural: Are emoții înainte de concurs. “She is nervous before the competition.”^[4][6]

Word family

• emotiv
• emotivitate
• emoționa
• emoțional
• emoționant

Related words

• French émotion
• Italian emozione

Usage notes

The variant emoțiune is now obsolete.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. emoție
3. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 352
4. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 809
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
6. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. emoție
7. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c 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. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România