felicitare

Forms

felicitare f (plural felicitări)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian felicita + -re, the long infinitive of the verb used as a noun.^[2][3][4][1] The verb, “to congratulate”, is from French féliciter;^[5][2] Marcu and Maneca also name Italian felicitare.^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Negulici's dictionary of 1848 has felicitare as the citation form of the verb, “to compliment someone on something”.^[6] As a noun, “congratulation, compliment”, it is in Pontbriant's dictionary of 1862.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The verb had a Romanized form fericita in the middle of the 19th century, used by Costache Negruzzi, which did not last.^[8] The noun names both the act of congratulating, praise for a success, and good wishes on an anniversary or another event.^[2] Concretely it is a card or letter, now usually a printed greeting card;^[3][9] Alecsandri thanks a friend for „felicitările ce mi-ai trimes de sărbători” “the greetings you sent me for the holidays”.^[3][9] In criminal slang it is a police summons or a sentence.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1830 – the verb felicita.^[11]
• 1848 – felicitare as the verb in Negulici.^[6]
• 1862 – the noun felicitare “congratulation” in Pontbriant.^[7]
• 1974 – felicitare-mărțișor, an envelope with a card and a mărțișor, in a newspaper.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. congratulation: the act of congratulating someone, praise for a success; good wishes on an anniversary or another important event.^[2][3]
2. (concrete) A greeting card or a letter by which someone is congratulated.^[3][1]
3. (criminal slang) A summons to the police; a criminal sentence.^[10]

Related words

• felicita

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 892
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 387
4. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. felicitare
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. felicita
6. ^ 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. felicitare
7. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 260
8. ^ 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. felicita
9. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 274
10. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. felicitare
11. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. felicita
12. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. felicitare