explozie

Forms

explozie f (plural explozii)^[1] Older and rarer variants include esplozie, esploziune, exploziune, esplosie, esplosiune and esplusiune.^[2][3] esplusiune: „se aude o esplusiune (izbucnitură) foarte tare și vasul se sparge” “a very loud explosion (burst) is heard and the vessel breaks”, in a 19th-century chemistry book.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French explosion, and the dictionaries name Latin explōsiō or Italian esplosione as further models: MDA2, DEX and the neologism dictionaries give French and Latin, DELR French and Italian, the DLR all three.^{[2][3][5][4][1]}

French took the noun from Latin in 1581, first in medicine; the sense “a bursting with force” appears in 1701.^[6] The Latin noun is formed explōdō (“to drive off by clapping”) with -tiō and meant “the driving of a play off the stage”.^[7][8] The verb is made ex- and plaudō (“to clap, applaud”), a word of unknown origin.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to 1829 and DELR to 1830, both in the periodical cited as AR.^[3][2] The DLR quotes the 1830 passage, in which gunners working with gunpowder caused an „aprindere plesnitoare (explozie)” “a bursting ignition (explosion)”, the new word explained by a native phrase.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Through the 19th century the word appeared in many shapes in chemistry and physics books, esplosiune, esploziune and esplusiune, before explozie prevailed.^[4][2] Its senses then widened from the chemical reaction and the noise it makes to volcanic eruptions, to the burning of fuel in an engine (motor cu explozie), to a sudden change of a phenomenon, and figuratively to an outburst of feeling.^[5][3] Recent dictionaries add explozie demografică “population explosion”.^[9] The verb exploda is recorded only from 1852.^[2]

Timeline

• 1829 – the first record, according to MDA2.^[3]
• 1830 – explozie in the periodical AR.^[2][4]
• 1852 – the verb exploda.^[2]
• 1893 – the adjective explodant.^[2]
• 1954 – explozimetru, a gas alarm.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A very fast and violent chemical or physical reaction, with detonation, heat and light; an explosion; also the burning of fuel in an internal-combustion engine: motor cu explozie.^[5][1]
2. explozie vulcanică: a sudden eruption of lava, volcanic bombs and gases.^[5]
3. A sudden passage of a phenomenon to a new quality; a sudden great increase: explozie demografică “population explosion”.^[5][9]
4. (figurative) A sudden, strong and short outburst of a feeling or action.^[5]
5. (phonetics) The sudden release of air held back by a closure in pronouncing certain sounds.^[5]

Word family

• exploziv

Related words

• exploda
• Latin explōsiō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. exploda
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 863
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. explozie
5. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 372
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. explosion
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. explōsiō
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. explōsĭo
9. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. explozie