eveniment

Forms

eveniment n (plural evenimente)^[1] In the 19th century the word was also adapted as evenement, evenemânt, evenimânt and evinemânt.^[2][3] Codrescu has evenimânt: „a fost în casă un evenimânt neauzit” “it was an unheard-of event in the house”.^[4] Besides the plural evenimente, older texts have evenimenturi.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French événement, a 19th-century loan.^[2][3][5][1] Ciorănescu sees the French word crossed with Italian avvenimento, which had already given the short-lived variant aveniment (1840).^[6][2]

The French word is a learned formation of before 1461 on Latin ēveniō (“to come out, to happen”), made after the model of avènement (“arrival”); it replaced the older évent.^[7][2] The Latin verb is formed ex- + veniō (“to come”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is from 1844, with the sense “happening, an important occurrence”.^[2] Heliade-Rădulescu had written avenimente “events” after the Italian word in 1840, and he has evenimentele in his Don Juan translation of 1847, MDA2's first record.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

Negulici's dictionary of neologisms (1848) glosses the word with întâmplare “happening”.^[8] Costinescu (1870) separates it from accident, a sad happening, and aventură, a happening that concerns persons.^[9]

In the 20th century the word took technical senses in information theory and probability theory.^[5][3] The press of the 1970s used eveniment for a road accident (eveniment rutier), and prison slang uses it for a disturbance among inmates.^[10][11] The derivative evenimențial “concerning events” is recorded from 1966.^[2]

Timeline

• 1840 – the variant aveniment, after Italian, in Heliade-Rădulescu.^[2]
• 1844 – eveniment, the first record.^[2]
• 1847 – evenimentele in Heliade-Rădulescu's Don Juan.^[3][4]
• 1848 – listed by Negulici.^[8]
• 1934 – the English loan event in sports writing.^[2]
• 1966 – evenimențial.^[2]
• 1974 – eveniment “road accident” in the press.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An important event, a happening of great significance for a person or a community.^[5][3][1]
2. (information theory) Any local and instantaneous phenomenon or state.^[5]
3. (mathematics) In probability theory, the occurrence or non-occurrence of a phenomenon in an experiment.^[5][3]
4. (colloquial) A road accident.^[10][12]

Word family

• evenimențial

Related words

• aveniment
• veni
• French événement

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. eveniment
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 846
4. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. eveniment
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 366
6. ^ 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. eveniment
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. événement
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, p. s.v. eveniment
9. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 400
10. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. eveniment
11. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. eveniment
12. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. eveniment