fraudă

Forms

fraudă f (plural fraude)^[1]

Etymology

It is a neologism, borrowed from French fraude.^[2][1] The DEX, MDA2 and the dictionaries of neologisms name Latin fraus beside it.^[3][4][5] The dictionary of neologisms also names Italian frode.^[6] Scriban took the word straight from Latin.^[7]

The French word is a 13th-century borrowing from Latin, recorded in 1255 as Old French fraulde and in the modern spelling from about 1283.^[8] The Latin word first meant harm or damage, and then deceit.^[8][9] The DHLF calls its origin unknown.^[8] Wiktionary suggests, with an uncertain sound development, Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- (“to deceive”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record that MDA2 and the DA give is in Vasile Alecsandri's plays, where a character says they meant to foil the intrigues and catch out the fraudele “frauds”.^[4][2][10]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant any act of bad faith or deceit.^[2][10] Early 20th-century dictionaries add a narrower sense: goods taken past the customs without paying the duties, smuggling.^[11][12][7] In the modern dictionaries it is a legal term for an act of bad faith that harms another's rights for one's own profit, and also the sum taken by such deceit.^[3][6]

The DA lists the adjective fraudulos “fraudulent” in its family, with faliment fraudulos “fraudulent bankruptcy”, with quotations from Hamangiu and Maiorescu's speeches.^[2]

Timeline

• 1929 – Șăineanu adds the customs sense, goods withheld from the duties.^[11]
• 1931 – CADE records both senses, deceit and the evasion of customs duties.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. fraud: an act of bad faith that harms another person's rights in order to gain a profit; theft by deceit.^[3][4][1]
2. A sum of money taken by deceit, by defrauding.^[3][6]
3. (dated) The evasion of customs duties on goods, smuggling.^[11][12]

Related words

• fraudulos
• defrauda
• Latin fraus

Usage notes

The ⟨au⟩ is pronounced as two syllables, fra-u-dă.^[3][4] Scriban records prin fraudă “by deceit”.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. fraudă
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 412
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 939
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
6. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
7. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 526
8. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 325
11. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 259
12. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească