eventual

Forms

eventual m or n (feminine singular eventuală, masculine plural eventuali, feminine/neuter plural eventuale)^[1] Older texts also have the forms eventuale and eventuel.^[2][3] A newspaper of 1855 uses the second as an adverb: „eventuel să se decapiteze prin ghilotină” “or possibly be beheaded by the guillotine”.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French éventuel (“possible, contingent”).^{[5][3][2][6][1]} The DLR also names Italian eventuale as a source, and Scriban and Marcu & Maneca compare the Italian word.^[4][7][8] DELR takes the French word from Medieval Latin ēventuālis (“depending on an occurrence”), a word of the chancery, from Latin ēventus (“outcome, event”), from ēveniō (“to happen, turn out”), made up of ex- and veniō (“to come”).^[2] The DHLF calls the French adjective a learned derivative of the Latin noun, recorded from 1718 and at first a legal term for treaties based on an uncertain event.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is a document of before 1776 in the Uricariul collection, with the sense “possible, likely to happen”.^[3] DELR dates the word to 1852, from a newspaper.^[2] The DLR's first quotations come from Barițiu's correspondence, then from newspapers of the 1850s such as Telegraful (1854).^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th century the word belonged to law and diplomacy: Costinescu (1870) defines it as made or prepared for an event that may or may not happen, with the examples tractat eventual “contingent treaty” and succesiune eventuală “contingent succession”.^[10] CADE (1931) still gives a clause or an inheritance as examples and calls gains that are not fixed and regular eventuale.^[11] The general sense “possible, probable” is the usual one today.^[5][3]

The adverbial use, “possibly, as the case may be”, appears in the 1850s, and Barcianu glosses the word with German eventuell in 1886.^[4][12] The abstract noun eventualitate “possible future situation” is recorded from 1840 and was taken from French éventualité.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1776 – the first record, in a document of the Uricariul collection.^[3]
• 1840 – eventualitate in the Poenaru–Aaron–Hill dictionary.^[2]
• 1852 – DELR's first record, in a newspaper.^[2]
• 1855 – the adverbial eventuel “possibly” in a newspaper.^[4]
• 1870 – Costinescu's legal examples tractat eventual and succesiune eventuală.^[10]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it with German eventuell.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That may happen; possible, probable: Au discutat despre o eventuală mutare la Cluj.^[5][3]
2. That depends on circumstances; contingent.^[4][11]
3. (adverbial) Possibly, if need be, as the case may be: Plecăm vineri, eventual sâmbătă.^[5][3][13]

Word family

• eventualitate

Usage notes

The word is a false friend of English eventual: Romanian eventual means “possible, contingent”, and used as an adverb “possibly, if need be”, never “final” or “in the end”.^[5][3] The DHLF makes the same point for the French adverb éventuellement, which does not have the sense of English eventually.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. eventual
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 d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. eventual
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. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 478
8. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 401
11. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
12. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 216
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 228