intact

Forms

intact m or n (feminine singular intactă, masculine plural intacți, feminine/neuter plural intacte)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French intact (“untouched”), with Latin intactus (“untouched”) as a second model: DEX, MDA2 and the dictionaries of neologisms name both sources, the Academy dictionary takes it after French.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Scriban derives it from Latin alone.^[6] The Latin adjective is formed from in- (“not”) and tāctus (“touched”), the past participle of tangō (“to touch”).^[7][1]

In French the word is a learned borrowing of 1461; the inherited Old French form of the Latin adjective was Old French entait (“whole, untouched”), which the borrowing replaced in the 15th century.^[8][9] Graur lists it with the other Romanian descendants of the Latin verb: atinge, tact, contact and contagiu.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in Titu Maiorescu's parliamentary speeches: a figure that remains „intactă” in the first volume (1866–1876), and „păstrarea intactă a Dobrogei” “keeping Dobruja intact” in the second.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the Latin sense “untouched, whole”.^[4][2] From things it spread to abstract qualities, as in reputațiune intactă “an unblemished reputation”, recorded by Scriban and Șăineanu.^[6][11] By extension it also describes a person who has come to no harm.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1866–1876 – Maiorescu's parliamentary speeches, the first record.^[4][3]
• 1886 – Barcianu's Romanian–German dictionary glosses it “untouched, unharmed”.^[12]
• 1929 – Șăineanu adds the figurative sense “clean, unblemished”.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Untouched, undamaged, whole: Clădirea a rămas intactă după cutremur.^[2][3]
2. (figurative) Unblemished, upright: o reputație intactă.^[3][11]
3. (of people) unharmed, safe and sound.^[2][3]

Related words

• atinge
• tact
• contact
• integru
• întreg

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 513
3. ^ 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, 1145
4. ^ a b c d 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. intact
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 648
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
11. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 333
12. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic