instabil

Forms

instabil m or n (feminine singular instabilă, masculine plural instabili, feminine/neuter plural instabile)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French instable, with Latin īnstabilis (“unsteady”) as a second source, as DEX, MDN and DILF give it.^[2][3][4] MDA2 adds Italian instabile to the sources, while the DA, Scriban and DN name only the Latin word.^[5][6][7][8] Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing from Latin, and by surface analysis stabil with the negative prefix in-.^[1] The Latin adjective is formed from in- (“not”) and stabilis (“firm, steady”).^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 has instabilŭ, glossed “unstable, inconstant” and French instable.^[11] MDA2 and the DA quote Iorga's history of 18th-century Romanian literature (1901), where a pretender's hopes are compared to the unstable crescent moon.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

From the general sense “not firm, changeable” the word took on technical senses: Scriban (1939) has the chemical compound that breaks down easily and the unstable equilibrium of mechanics.^[7] DEX and MDA2 separate the physical sense, said of systems and objects, from the figurative one, “changeable, fickle”, and MDA2 adds the chemical sense of a substance that reacts fast.^[2][5] The DA notes a rarer stress on the second syllable, instábil, which the DLRLC still records.^[6][12] The DA also lists the noun instabilitate.^[6]

Timeline

• 1870 – instabilŭ in Costinescu's dictionary.^[11]
• 1901 – in Iorga's history of 18th-century literature.^[6][5]
• 1939 – the chemical and mechanical senses in Scriban.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of physical or technical systems and objects: unstable, lacking stability; nestabil.^[2][5][1]
2. (figurative) changeable, variable, fickle: vreme instabilă.^[2][13][12]
3. (chemistry) Of a substance: reacting quickly and tending to turn into another substance.^[5][7]

Word family

• instabilitate

Related words

• stabil
• nestabil

Usage notes

Echilibru instabil “unstable equilibrium” is a fixed phrase of physics.^[7][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. 511
3. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. instabil
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. instabil
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1143
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. instabil
7. ^ a b c d e Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 646
8. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. instabil
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 551
12. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 525
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. instabil