gratuit

Forms

gratuit m or n (feminine singular gratuită, masculine plural gratuiți, feminine/neuter plural gratuite)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French gratuit, also borrowed from Latin grātuītus (“costing nothing, free”), a 19th-century neologism that the dictionaries give with both models.^[2][3][4][1] Scriban derives it from Latin alone.^[5] The French word, recorded from 1495, is itself a learned loan of the Latin one.^[6] The Latin adjective is formed on the family of grātēs (“thanks”) and grātia (“favour”), with the ending of fortuītus.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 has gratuitŭ “done or given without obligation, given as a gift, without payment”, glossing French gratuit.^[8] MDA2's first record, the academic dictionary of 1955, is far later.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, “given or received without payment”, is the one the French and Latin words already had.^[8][6] The figurative senses “without reason, groundless” (presupunere gratuită “a groundless supposition”) and “useless, serving no practical end” match French senses recorded from 1718 and 1831; Șăineanu and the CADE already give the first.^[9][10][5] Used as an adverb it means “for nothing, free of charge”, like gratis.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 1870 – gratuitŭ in Costinescu's dictionary, “given without payment”.^[8]
• 1875 – gratuitu in Antonescu's dictionary.^[11]
• 1886 – gratuit as adjective and adverb in Barcianu's dictionary.^[12]
• 1931 – the CADE records the senses “free of charge” and “unfounded, unmotivated”.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. free, gratuitous: that costs nothing, given or received without any payment: transport gratuit pentru elevi.^[2][3][1]
2. (figurative) useless, serving no practical purpose.^[2][4][1]
3. (figurative) unfounded, not supported by evidence: o acuzație gratuită.^[2][3][1]

Adverb

1. Free of charge, without paying.^[3][5]

Related words

• gratis
• Latin grātuītus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 447
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, 1017
4. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. gratuit
5. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 572
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. gratuit
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. grātuītus
8. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 499
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 282
10. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. gratuit
11. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 116
12. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 258