evacuare

Forms

evacuare f (plural evacuări)^[1]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive from Romanian evacua + -re, the noun of action of the verb.^[2][3][4][1] The verb is a neologism from French évacuer and Latin ēvacuō (“to empty”), recorded from 1837; the Latin verb comes from vacuus (“empty”).^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to Pontbriant's Romanian–French dictionary of 1862, which renders it French évacuation, “abandonment, departure”.^[3][6] The DLR's early quotations, from Ghica and Alecsandri, concern the withdrawal of the occupying troops from the Principalities.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Costinescu in 1870 gave both a medical sense, “to empty out”, and a military one, “to withdraw troops from a country”.^[8] Laurian and Massim also describe it as above all a military term.^[9] The military sense led to spital de evacuare, a field hospital behind the front.^[10][3]

In the 20th century it came to mean the organised removal of people or goods from a place of danger, and the forced removal of a tenant by order of a court.^[3][7] In engineering it names the phase of an engine's cycle in which the burnt gases are expelled.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1862 – evacuare in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[3][6]
• 1870 – Costinescu gives the medical and military senses.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. evacuation, the act of evacuating and its result: the removal of people or goods from a place of danger, or the leaving of a building or town: Din cauza inundației s-a decis evacuarea satului.^[2][3][1]
2. (military) The withdrawal of troops from a country or territory, after a defeat or a treaty: spital de evacuare “field hospital behind the front”.^[3][10]
3. (law) The eviction of a person from a dwelling by order of a court or authority.^[3]
4. (medicine) The elimination of waste matter from the body.^[3][11]
5. (engineering) The exhaust phase in the cycle of an internal combustion engine or gas turbine, when the burnt gases are expelled.^[2][4]

Related words

• evacua
• evacuație

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 365
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 845
4. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. evacuare
5. ^ 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. evacua
6. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 249
7. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. evacuare
8. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 400
9. ^ Laurian, A. T.; Massim, I. C. (1871–1876), Dictionariulu limbei romane, 2 vols., Bucuresci: Noua Typographia a Laboratoriloru Romani
10. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 227
11. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. evacuare