experient

Forms

experient m or n (feminine singular experientă, masculine plural experienți, feminine/neuter plural experiente)^[1] Laurian and Massim's dictionary also records an old invariable form esperiente.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing borrowed from Latin experiēns (“experienced; enterprising, active”), the present participle of experior (“to try, to put to the test”).^{[4][3][5][2][1]} DELR notes that the Latin participle had already taken on the senses “experienced” and “enterprising, active”, which Romanian kept.^[4][6]

DELR places the word in the family of experiență, beside the rare verb experia “to know from one's own experience”, recorded from 1854 and taken from the same Latin verb.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is from 1846, in a periodical issue, with the sense “experienced”.^[4] MDA2 dates it only from Laurian and Massim's dictionary of 1871.^[3] An 1860 document quoted by the DLR asks for oameni experienți “experienced men” to handle the ships.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has stayed rare.^[2] Its main sense is “experienced, skilled”; the sense “active, enterprising”, which goes back to the Latin, is given by the neologism dictionaries and MDA2.^[2][3][5]

Timeline

• 1846 – first record, “experienced”, in a periodical.^[4]
• 1854 – the related verb experia “to experience”.^[4]
• 1860 – oameni experienți “experienced men” in a document quoted by the DLR.^[2]
• 1871 – entered in Laurian and Massim's dictionary, with the old form esperiente.^[3][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (rare) experienced, skilled: having gained knowledge or skill through practice.^[2][3][5][1]
2. (rare) Active, enterprising.^[2][3][5]

Related words

• experiență
• experia
• experimentat
• Latin experior

Usage notes

The usual word for “experienced” is experimentat;^[2][3] experient is labelled rare.^[2][3]

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 Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. experient
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, 861
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. experiență
5. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press