fruct

Forms

fruct n (plural fructe)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin frūctus (“fruit; enjoyment, profit”), a learned loan of the 19th century, as DER, DEX, MDA2, DN and the DA agree.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The Latin noun is formed on fruor (“to enjoy”).^[1] Gabinschi sees a European word of Latin origin, also supported by Russian фрукт (frukt) and German Frucht.^[7]

The same Latin word, inherited, gave frupt, which the REW glosses “dairy food”; the two are doublets.^[2][6][8] The Aromanian fructu is also a loan from Latin.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825, which gives fructu and fruptu as one word.^[10] Tiktin dates it to 1829.^[11] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms of 1848 glosses it with the native rod and poamă.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The early records show the loan meeting the inherited frupt: Barcianu's dictionary of 1886 still gives fruct with the sense “meat dish” and the phrase a mânca de fruct “to eat meat (outside a fast)”.^[13] The botanical sense won out, beside poamă and rod.^[3][4]

The DA quotes the figurative sense “offspring, result” from Eminescu, and the legal fructe civile “rent, interest” from the civil code.^[6][4] Fructe de mare “seafood”, after French fruits de mer, is recorded in the press of 2007.^[14]

Timeline

• 1825 – fructu in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[10]
• 1829 – Tiktin's first record.^[11]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[12]
• 1886 – Barcianu still records the sense “meat dish” beside “fruit”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fruit: the part of a plant that grows from the fertilised pistil and holds the seeds.^[3][1]
2. Plant produce eaten as food;^[14] fructe de mare “seafood”.^[3][14]
3. (figurative) The result, material or moral profit of an action: fructul muncii.^[3][4]

Word family

• fructar
• fructărie
• fructifer
• fructuos
• fructifica
• infructuos

Related words

• frupt

Usage notes

DEX gives a rare variant fructă.^[3] MDA2 lists a separate building term fruct “batter, the inward slope of an outer wall”, from French fruit remade after this word;^[15] DN and MDN treat it under the same headword.^[4][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. fruct
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 416
4. ^ 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, 946
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. fruct
6. ^ a b c 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. fruct
7. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 107
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 473
10. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 226
11. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. fruct
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. fruct
13. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 238
14. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. fruct
15. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. fruct