evaluare

Forms

evaluare f (plural evaluări)^[1]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of evalua, formed from Romanian evalua + -re.^[2][1][3][4] DLR compares French évaluation.^[5] The verb is a borrowing of évaluer, from 1852, and DELR traces the French verb to value (“value, price”), the old feminine participle of valoir (“to be worth”) used as a noun, from Latin valeō (“to be strong; to be worth”).^[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is the Enciclopedia română of 1898, where a budget is said to be not only an arithmetical evaluation but a legal and political act.^[2][5] DLR also quotes the word, in the sense “appraisal of value”, from Kogălniceanu's speeches and Eminescu's articles on the budget.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the estimate of a value, especially in money: property, budgets, damages.^[5][2] It was then used for measuring any quantity, such as a population or the reserves of a deposit, and in schools for marking written work and tests.^[2][5] Romanian dictionaries define it as both the act of evaluating and its result.^[4][3]

The verb has its own derivatives: autoevaluare is recorded from 1934, subevaluare from 1922, both formed after the verb.^[6]

Timeline

• 1852 – the verb evalua, in Alexie Marin's chemistry textbook.^[2][6]
• 1898 – evaluare in the Enciclopedia română.^[2]
• 1922 – subevaluare “undervaluation”.^[6]
• 1934 – autoevaluare “self-assessment”.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. evaluation, assessment: the act of evaluating and its result; a reckoning or calculation; an appraisal.^[4][1]
2. The estimate of something's value in money.^[2]
3. The measurement of a quantity in suitable units.^[2]
4. The marking of written work and tests.^[2]

Related words

• evalua
• valoare

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 845
3. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. evaluare
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 365
5. ^ 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. evaluáre
6. ^ a b c d e 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. evalua