forță

Forms

forță f (plural forțe)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French force, with Italian forza as a second model: DEX 2009, MDA2, the neologism dictionaries and Scriban name both sources.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Tiktin and Wiktionary give only the Italian word.^[7][1] Scriban also names Medieval Latin fortia.^[6]

Both Romance words come from Late Latin fortia, the neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong”) taken as a feminine singular noun.^[8][9][1] The Latin adjective itself survives in Romanian as the adverb foarte “very”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1812.^[7] MDA2 cites it first from the Uricariul, Codrescu's collection of Moldavian documents published from 1852 on, and records a variant forție that it does not recommend.^[3] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms (1848) lists it with Latin fortitudo and Romanian putere “power” as its equivalents.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Scriban (1939) already lists most of the modern senses: physical power, violence and compulsion, the armed forces of a state, moral energy and the force of a style, with the phrases forță majoră “force majeure” and tur de forță, taken from French tour de force.^[6] Şăineanu's dictionary adds the physical sense “cause of motion”, as in the force of water.^[12] DEX 2009 adds the economic term forță de muncă “workforce” and the physical definition of force.^[2]

The Muntenian glossary records a regional sense, a bed prepared for forcing plants.^[13]

Timeline

• 1812 – the first record.^[7]
• 1848 – listed by Negulici among the neologisms.^[11]
• 1852 on – recorded in the Uricariul.^[3]
• 1939 – Scriban lists forță majoră and tur de forță.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Physical strength: the capacity of living beings to make an effort through their muscles.^[2][3]
2. Strength, power; moral energy; ability to achieve something.^[2][3] De forță means “very able”.^[2]
3. A person of great energy who is very active in some field.^[2][3]
4. (usually plural, forțe armate) The military units of a state; the armed forces.^[2][3]
5. (economics) Forță de muncă: the capacity for work of people; by extension, the workforce.^[2]
6. (physics) force: an action of one physical system on another that changes its state of rest or motion or deforms it.^[2]
7. Compulsion, violence: cu forța “by force”;^[2][6] caz de forță majoră “a case of force majeure”.^[2][6]

Related words

• forța
• foarte

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 407
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 932
4. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. forță
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. forță
6. ^ a b c d e f Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 522
7. ^ 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. forță
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3457
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 257
13. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. 154