incredibil

Forms

incredibil m or n (feminine singular incredibilă, masculine plural incredibili, feminine/neuter plural incredibile)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian incredibile, with Latin incredibilis as a second source, as DEX, DN, MDN and NODEX give it.^[2][3][4][5] According to MDA2 and Wiktionary it is also borrowed from French incrédible.^[6][1] Scriban gives only the Latin word.^[7] The Latin adjective is formed from in- (“not”) and crēdibilis (“believable”).^[8] The Italian adjective, a learned word from Latin, is recorded from Dante (1300–1313).^[9] Within Romanian it matches credibil with the prefix in-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Scriban's dictionary of 1939 lists it with the senses “that cannot be believed” and “extraordinary”, as in noroc incredibil “incredible luck”.^[7] MDA2's first record, the Penal Code of the People's Republic, is undated.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Besides “unbelievable”, the dictionaries give the weaker “hard to believe” and “strange”.^[6][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. unbelievable, that cannot be believed: o poveste incredibilă.^[2][1]
2. Hard to believe; extraordinary, strange.^[6][7][3]

Related words

• credibil
• crede
• Latin incredibilis

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 500
3. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. incredibil
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. incredibil
5. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. incredibil
6. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1127
7. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 632
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli