factor

Forms

factor m (plural factori)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French facteur, also borrowed from Latin factor (“maker, doer”): the DEX, the MDA2, the DA and the DN give the French word, with the Latin one beside it.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Tiktin takes it from Latin and compares German Faktor.^[6] Scriban names Russian фактор (faktor) and German beside the French.^[7] Gabinschi puts the stress on the first syllable for the European loan of Latin origin, which he takes through German and Russian, and on the last for the postman sense, which he takes from French.^[8]

The Latin noun is formed on faciō (“to do, to make”) with the agent suffix -tor.^[9][1] The French noun was borrowed from it in 1326 as a term of trade, “one who trades for another”; since the 17th century it has named the man who carries letters.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of about 1678–1683 has factor as the equivalent of a Slavonic word for “evildoer”.^[11] Tiktin's first record is a document of 1767 in Iorga's Studii și documente.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th century the word had the commercial sense: Negulici (1848) explains it as a man in charge of a printing house or other business, and as a carrier of letters, and Costinescu (1870) as one who does business for another.^[12][13] The DA quotes Ion Ionescu on the Jews who were money-changers and factorii comerciului, and the MDA2 still lists the sense “commission agent” as old.^[4][3]

The mathematical sense, each of the numbers multiplied to form a product, and the general sense “element that contributes to a result” are in the DA, Scriban and Șăineanu.^[14][7][4] The CADE of 1931 puts the postman sense first.^[15] Șăineanu and the DA also have the railway factor la drumul de fier, who delivered goods.^[14][4]

Today the main sense is the cause or condition behind a process, as in factor de producție and the compound factor-cheie “key factor” of the 1970s press.^[2][16][17] DLRLC treats the postman as a separate word, factor², which it accents both fáctor and factór.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1678–1683 – factor glossing Slavonic “evildoer” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1767 – first record in Tiktin, from a document published by Iorga.^[6]
• 1848 – “business manager, letter carrier” in Negulici.^[12]
• 1870 – the commercial sense and the factor of a multiplication in Costinescu.^[13]
• 1890 – the general sense in Gherea's Studii critice, the MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1970 – factor-cheie “key factor” in the press.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A factor: an element, condition or circumstance that brings about or shapes a process, an action or a phenomenon.^[2][3][1]
2. (mathematics) Each of the terms of a product.^[2] Factor prim is a prime number by which a given number divides exactly, factor comun a number by which each term of a sum divides.^[2][16]
3. (physics, technology) A quantity that enters a relation by multiplication, or a characteristic ratio of two quantities in a technical system or material.^[2][3]
4. A postman, a post-office employee who delivers letters, also factor poștal.^[2][18][1]
5. (obsolete) A commission agent, one who trades on another's account.^[3][4]

Related words

• factorial
• Latin factor

Usage notes

In the postman sense the stress can also fall on the last syllable, factór.^[2][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. 378
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 871
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. factor
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. factor
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. factor
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 489
8. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 101
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. factor
12. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. factor
13. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 418
14. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 241
15. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
16. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. factor
17. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. fáctor
18. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 253