important

Forms

important m or n (feminine singular importantă, masculine plural importanți, feminine/neuter plural importante)^[1] Older texts also have the form importante for the masculine, recorded as obsolete;^[2][3] Tiktin lists importent as well.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a 19th-century neologism, borrowed from French important (“important”), as DEX, MDA2 and MDN give it; the DA calls it a new word modelled on French.^{[4][2][5][6][1]} Tiktin derives it instead from Italian importante, and the older form ⟨importante⟩ matches the Italian;^[3][7][8] Scriban and the DN name both languages.^[3][7][8] Scriban describes the French adjective as the present participle of importer (“to matter”).^[7] It belongs with importa “to matter” and importanță “importance”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1799, with the general sense “weighty, significant”.^[3] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms of 1848 explains it as “considerable, valuable, significant”, glossed with Latin magnus.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is “of great significance”, said of matters and works: Ion Ionescu calls the population the most important subject of a country's economic study.^[6][10] Applied to people it came to mean “influential, prominent”, and in irony “self-important, conceited”;^[6][7][4] Scriban records the phrase a face pe importantul “to give oneself airs”.^[6][7][4] The DA also records the superlative importantisim, taken from Italian importantissimo, in Hasdeu and Iorga.^[6]

Timeline

• 1799 – first record.^[3]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[9]
• 1893–1895 – Damé glosses it with French important.^[11]
• 1931 – CADE gives the three modern senses, the ironic one included.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. important, significant: of great weight or value; însemnat.^[4][2] O decizie importantă pentru tot satul.^[4][2]
2. Of people: prominent, influential, of high standing.^[4][2]
3. (ironic) self-important, conceited: thinking oneself a person of note.^[4][2]

Related words

• importa
• importanță
• French important

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1119
3. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. important
4. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 494
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. important
6. ^ a b c d e 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. important
7. ^ a b c d e f Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 626
8. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. important
9. ^ 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. important
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 498
11. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. important
12. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. important