ideal

Forms

ideal m or n (feminine singular ideală, masculine plural ideali, feminine/neuter plural ideale)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French idéal, and at the same time borrowed from Latin ideālis (“existing in idea”).^[2][3][4] NODEX puts the Latin word first, while the DA, Scriban and Tiktin give only the Latin, Tiktin as a New Latin word that may also have come through other languages.^[5][6][7][8]

The Latin adjective is a late formation from idea (“idea”) with the suffix -ālis, found in Martianus Capella.^[1][9] The Latin noun is in turn from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéā, “form, idea”).^[1] French borrowed the adjective in 1551 from Medieval Latin ideālis (“relating to the idea”), and the noun followed in the 18th century.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1818.^[8] In 1848 Negulici's dictionary of neologisms defined the adjective as “what exists only in the idea, in the mind”, and the noun as ideal beauty, perfection.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The adjective first meant “existing only in thought”, as opposed to real, and then “corresponding to our idea of perfection”, perfect: Alecsandri wrote of Venus's „frumosul ideal” “ideal beauty”.^[6][12] Used as a noun it came to mean a model of perfection and the highest aim of a person or a society;^[6][2] Eminescu wrote of an „ideal pierdut în noaptea unei lumi ce nu mai este” “an ideal lost in the night of a world that is no more”.^[6][2] In mathematics an ideal is a subset of a ring closed under subtraction and under multiplication by the ring's elements.^[13] It is also used as an adverb: ideal de frumos “ideally beautiful”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1818 – Tiktin's first record.^[8]
• 1848 – the adjective and noun in Negulici's dictionary.^[11]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses it “existing only in the idea, chimerical”.^[14]
• 1886 – Barcianu gives the noun with both plurals, ideale and idealuri.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. perfect, reaching perfection; flawless: o soluție ideală.^[2][3]
2. Of ideas and thought; existing only in the mind, imaginary; spiritual, immaterial.^[2][3]

Noun

1. An ideal: a model or supreme aim that guides the conduct of a person or a group: un ideal de viață.^[2][3]
2. (mathematics) A subset of a ring closed under subtraction and under multiplication by any element of the ring.^[13]

Word family

• idealism
• idealist

Related words

• idee
• French idéal

Usage notes

The adjective has the plurals ideali, ideale; the noun usually idealuri, but ideale is also found, as in Eminescu.^[2][6][8] It is pronounced with the syllables i-de-al.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 486
3. ^ 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, 1103
4. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. ideal
5. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. ideal
6. ^ a b c d e f 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. ideal
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 614
8. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ideal
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
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, p. s.v. ideal
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 482
13. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. ideal
14. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 522
15. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 272