evoluție

Forms

evoluție f (plural evoluții)^[1] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 prints it in the transitional alphabet as evoΛꙋцie.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French évolution and, as a learned word, borrowed from Latin ēvolūtiō (“an unrolling of a book; a reading”).^[3][4][1] DELR names the French word alone and adds that French borrowed it from the Latin.^[5]

The Latin noun is formed on ēvolvō (“to roll out, to unroll”) with the suffix -tiō,^[1][6] and the verb is a compound of ex- and volvō (“to roll”).^[5] DHLF traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to roll”) and notes that revolvō gave French révolution.^[7]

French borrowed the word in 1536 as a military term, for the movement of an army changing its position, and used it for fleets from 1697.^[8] The sense “change, development” appeared in the second half of the 18th century, in natural science from 1762 (Charles Bonnet), probably under the influence of English evolution.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1829, from the newspaper cited as CR;^[5][3] MDA2 dates it to before 1829.^[5][3] The oldest sense the dictionaries give is military: Negulici in 1848 defines it as a movement of troops to take up another position, and MDA2 lists the manoeuvres of troops, fleets and aircraft as its first, now dated, sense.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From the manoeuvre the word passed to wide, circular movements in general, of aircraft or ships, and to the general sense of development through successive stages.^[4][3] In biology it names the transformation of species;^[3][4][5] DELR dates evoluționism, the theory of evolution, to 1882 and evoluționist to 1876, both from French, the second also from English.^[3][4][5]

The dictionaries of the 1950s put the philosophical sense first: one of the two forms of dialectical change, small quantitative changes that prepare a qualitative leap, as opposed to revolution.^[9][3] Later senses are the course of a disease and the performance of an artist or athlete before the public.^[3][10] DELR and MDA2 record the old variants evoluțiune and evoluciune.^[5][3]

Timeline

• 1829 – the first record.^[5][3]
• 1846 – evoluționar “taking part in military manoeuvres; evolving”.^[5]
• 1848 – “a movement of troops” in Negulici's dictionary.^[2]
• 1876 – evolutiv “evolving” and evoluționist “evolutionist”.^[5]
• 1877 – the verb evolua “to evolve”, from French.^[5]
• 1882 – evoluționism “the theory of evolution”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. development; gradual change through successive stages.^[4][3]
2. The course or unfolding of something, as of a disease.^[4][3]
3. A movement in wide, mostly circular figures, as of aircraft or ships.^[4][10]
4. (biology) evolution: the process by which the living world developed from the most primitive organisms to its present diversity.^[4]
5. The performance of an artist or athlete before the public.^[10][3]
6. (dated, military) A manoeuvre of troops or ships to change position.^[3][2]

Related words

• evolua
• evoluționism
• evoluționist
• evolutiv
• Latin ēvolūtiō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. evoluție
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 848
4. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 366
5. ^ 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. evolua
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 229
10. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. evoluție