exterior

Forms

exterior m or n (feminine singular exterioară, masculine plural exteriori, feminine/neuter plural exterioare); as a noun, neuter, plural exterioare.^[1][2] An older variant is esterior, as in Barasch: „Această lume esterioară” “this outer world”.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin exterior (“outer”), taken as a neologism, as well as borrowed from French extérieur: DELR, DEX, MDA2 and Wiktionary give both sources.^[3][2][5][1] The DLR adds Italian esteriore.^[4] DELR records the old variant esterior.^[3]

The Latin adjective is the comparative of exter (“outward; foreign”), formed on ex (“out of”).^[3][6] The French form, of 1563, re-suffixed an earlier learned loan of 1447 from the same Latin word.^[7] Romanian interior is its opposite, and extern belongs to the same Latin family.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in I. Golescu, in 1832.^[3] DELR gives the adjective the senses “outside, beyond a limit” and “concerning relations with other countries”, and the noun “the outside of a thing”, “a person's appearance” and “abroad”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 1840s the adjective appears in a scientific translation (Poenaru, Aaron and Hill) and in Negulici;^[4] Barasch speaks of lumea esterioară “the outer world”, and Convorbiri literare of lumea exterioară in the 1870s.^[4] Costinescu (1870) already gives the noun, a person's look, and politica exterioară “foreign policy”.^[9]

The sense “relating to foreign countries” survives in comerț exterior “foreign trade”;^[2][10][8] CADE and Scriban also give the noun “abroad”, știri din exterior “news from abroad”.^[2][10][8] DELR dates exterioritate from 1854 and exterioriza “to express outwardly” from 1875.^[3]

Timeline

• 1832 – first record, in I. Golescu.^[3]
• 1840 – the adjective in Poenaru, Aaron and Hill's translation.^[4]
• 1854 – the derivative exterioritate.^[3]
• 1870 – Costinescu gives the adjective, politica exterioară and the noun “appearance”.^[9]
• 1875 – the derivative exterioriza.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. external, outer: situated outside something or beyond a limit; extern: zidurile exterioare ale cetății.^[2][5]
2. Comerț exterior: foreign trade, the whole of a country's imports and exports.^[2][5]

Noun

1. The exterior, the outside of a thing; a fațadă.^[2][5]
2. A person's appearance: looks, dress and bearing; înfățișare, ținută.^[2][5]
3. Foreign countries, abroad: a pleca în exterior.^[3][10]

Word family

• exterioritate
• exterioriza

Related words

• interior
• extern

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 373
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. exterior
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. exterior
5. ^ 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, 865
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 486
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 412
10. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. exterior