expirat

Forms

expirat m or n (feminine singular expirată, masculine plural expirați, feminine/neuter plural expirate)^[1] An older spelling espirat appears in the 19th century;^[2][3] Filimon writes of actors known from the reviews kept „în tot cursul stagiunii espirate” “throughout the past season”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is the past participle, used as an adjective, from Romanian expira (“to breathe out; to expire”).^[3][2][1] The verb has a double source, French expirer and Latin exspīrō, which DEX names together.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Pontbriant's Romanian–French dictionary of 1862, where the adjective is said of people and means “dead”, a sense now obsolete.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The old senses follow the French verb: “dead”, then “vanished, extinguished” and “waned little by little”.^[3] In physiology the word describes air breathed out of the lungs;^[2] Eminescu already writes that carbon is „espirat” as carbonic acid.^[2] Of periods of time it means “ended, past”: Odobescu dates an excavation to „anul expirat 1867” “the past year 1867”, and the phrase anul expirat “the year just ended” is still common in the press.^[2] Of contracts, agreements and deadlines it means “no longer in force” or “exceeded”.^[3]

Since the 2000s the word is also used, half in jest, of a person overtaken by events or by the demands of the moment, as an adjective and as a noun: un expirat “a has-been”.^[6] Dimitrescu's quotations of 2004–2008 note that the current dictionaries did not yet record this sense.^[6]

Timeline

• 1862 – expirat “dead” in Pontbriant's dictionary, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1867 – anul expirat “the past year” in Odobescu, of a dated excavation.^[2]
• 2004 – a person called expirat “past it” in Observator cultural.^[6]
• 2008 – expirații of members of a national council whose mandates had lapsed, on adevarul.ro.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Of a contract, agreement or document) expired, lapsed: no longer in force.^[3][1]
2. (Of a period of time) ended, past: luna expirată “the month just ended”.^[2][3]
3. (Of a deadline) passed, exceeded.^[3]
4. (Of air) exhaled, breathed out of the lungs.^[3][2]
5. (colloquial) Of a person: out of date, overtaken by events; also as a noun, a has-been.^[6]
6. (obsolete) Of people: dead.^[3][2]

Related words

• expira
• expirare
• French expirer

Usage notes

MDA2 also records a neuter noun expirat (plural expiraturi) with the senses of expirare: “death, ending, expiry”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. expirat
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 371
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. expira
6. ^ a b c d e Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. expirat