identificare

Forms

identificare f (plural identificări)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian identifica + -re, the long infinitive of the verb used as a noun.^[1][2][3] The verb is from French identifier and identificō.^[2][1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Negulici (1848) and Costinescu (1870) list identificare as the citation form of the verb, “to understand two things under one idea; to merge one's being with another's”.^[5][6] As a noun, “the action of identifying, of regarding as alike”, it is first recorded in Pontbriant's dictionary of 1862.^[7] MDA2's first record is from Gherea's Studii critice (1890).^[8]

Semantic evolution

The noun follows the senses of the verb: establishing who a person or what a thing is, and treating two things as the same.^[8][2] The reflexive use gave the sense of putting oneself in another's place, as a writer identifies with the feelings of his characters.^[9][8] MDA2 also records the senses “confusion” and “merging”.^[8]

Timeline

• 1848 – identificare as the verb's citation form in Negulici's dictionary.^[5]
• 1862 – the noun “action of identifying” in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[7]
• 1890 – in Gherea's Studii critice.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. identification: the act of establishing who a person or what a thing is.^[2][8]
2. The act of regarding two things as identical.^[8]
3. The act of putting oneself in another's place, of feeling or acting as another would.^[8][9]
4. confusion of one thing with another; merging.^[8]

Related words

• identifica
• identic
• identitate

References

1. ^ a b c 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. 486
3. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. identificare
4. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. identifica
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci
7. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1104
9. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 483