expune

Forms

expune (third-person singular present expune, past participle expus, third-person subjunctive expună), 3rd conjugation^[1] Older texts write espune: Kogălniceanu has „D[omnul] Președinte al consiliului espune apoi că...” “the President of the council then sets out that...”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned loan, borrowed from Latin expōnō (“to put out, set forth”), adapted to the pattern of the native verb pune, with its senses modelled on French exposer.^[4][5][6][2] Tiktin calls it New Latin, perhaps also taken indirectly.^[7] The Latin verb is formed from ex- and pōnō (“to place, put”).^[1][8]

The same Latin verb survives as the inherited spune (“to say, tell”), so the two are doublets.^[1][9] Its Romance descendants include Italian esporre, Spanish esponer and Portuguese expor.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is of 1799, when Iorgovici put the form expónere on a list of new words he proposed for the language; the form expune follows in 1810, in Nicoară.^[4][7] Tiktin's German glosses are “to carry out, set forth”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was “to set forth in words”, and the DLR's 19th-century quotations from Kogălniceanu, Negruzzi and Laurian use it for setting out plans, claims and theories.^[2] The sense “to put on show” (goods in a shop, works in an exhibition) and “to turn towards, leave open to” (sun, wind, fire) are in Șăineanu's dictionary of 1929, as is “to put in danger”.^[10] Șăineanu also records the old sense “to abandon a child in the street”.^[10] The photographic sense, exposing a film or plate to light, is in the modern dictionaries.^[5][4]

The family grew from French and German models: expoziție goes back to 1763, exponent to about 1800, expozeu to 1862, exponat to 1916; supraexpune (1915) and subexpune (1926) were formed on the verb after French surexposer and sous-exposer.^[4]

Timeline

• 1799 – expónere in Iorgovici's list of proposed new words.^[4]
• 1810 – expune in Nicoară.^[4][7]
• 1862 – expozeu “exposé”, from French.^[4]
• 1915 – supraexpune “to overexpose”.^[4]
• 1926 – subexpune “to underexpose”.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To set out in words, to relate or explain: a expus pe larg planul “he set out the plan in detail”.^[5][6]
2. To put on display, to exhibit; with la, to place something so that it is acted on by something: a expune rufele la soare “to put the washing out in the sun”.^[5][6]
3. (transitive and reflexive) To put or be in a dangerous or unpleasant position; to expose oneself to a risk.^[5][1]
4. (photography) To expose a film or plate to light.^[5][1]

Word family

• expunere
• subexpune
• supraexpune

Related words

• spune
• pune
• expoziție
• exponat
• exponent
• expozeu

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. expune
3. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. expune
4. ^ 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. expune
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 373
6. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 864
7. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. expune
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 239