influență

Forms

influență f (plural influențe)^[1] Old variants were influenție and influință: „Cere de la dânșii de a sprijini prin a lor influenție în Adunare” “he asks them to support it with their influence in the Assembly” (1835).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French influence, the source given by DEX, DILF, DA and Wiktionary.^[4][5][2][1] Tiktin, Scriban and NODEX give a second source: borrowed from Medieval Latin īnfluentia.^[3][6][7] The Latin noun is formed on Latin īnfluēns (“flowing in”), the present participle of īnfluō (“to flow in”).^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to 1774, in a document published in Uricariul, where the sense is “credit, standing”: „Influența și favoarea Excelenței Voastre a crescut” “Your Excellency's influence and favour have grown”.^[9][2] Tiktin's first record is of 1825.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The earliest records have the figurative sense, the authority or credit a person has; the general sense, the physical or moral action one thing or person has on another, is quoted in DA from Negruzzi and Eminescu.^[2] In physics electrizare prin influență is electrostatic induction, and in law trafic de influență is influence peddling.^[4][9]

Timeline

• 1774 – first record, “credit, standing”, in a document published in Uricariul.^[9]
• 1825 – a record cited by Tiktin.^[3]
• 1835 – the old variant influenție.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An action exerted on a thing or being that can change it; înrâurire.^[4][1]
2. The influence one person has on another, deliberately or through prestige and authority; credit, standing: a avea influență “to have influence”.^[4][9]
3. (physics) electrizare prin influență: electrostatic induction.^[4]
4. (law) trafic de influență: influence peddling.^[9]

Word family

• influența
• influențabil

Usage notes

DEX has a second influență (DEX's influență²), an obsolete name of an epidemic disease like the flu, later of the flu itself, taken from French, Italian and German: Italian influenza, German Influenza.^[4][5] DA says the disease was known in Romania from about 1820 and takes the name after Italian.^[2] Scriban and Șăineanu still gave “flu” as a sense of the word.^[6][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. influență
3. ^ 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. influență
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. 507
5. ^ a b 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. influență
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 640
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. influență
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. influō
9. ^ 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, 1136
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 324