inteligență

Forms

inteligență f (plural inteligențe)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin intelligentia, with French intelligence and German Intelligenz as further models, a neologism with several sources: DEX and MDA2 name all three, while the DA, Scriban and the DN take it after the Latin word.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Wiktionary gives French alone.^[1] For the variant intelighenție, “the intellectuals”, DEX adds a Russian source.^[2]

The Latin noun is formed of intelligēns (“understanding, discerning”) and the suffix -ia.^[1] The participle belongs to intellegō (“to understand”), made of inter (“between”) and legō (“to gather, choose”): properly “to choose between”.^[7][8] French borrowed the Latin noun about 1175.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is in Titu Maiorescu's Critice, essays written between 1867 and 1892, in the sense “the capacity to understand”.^[3] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 defines it as understanding, the faculty of comprehending, and glosses it with French intelligence.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Beside the faculty of understanding, the word came to mean a deep understanding of ideas, and by extension an intelligent person.^[3][5] In Transylvania it was used, after German, for the educated class as a whole: Barcianu's dictionary of 1886 glosses it both as German Verstand and as the educated people, die Intelligenz;^[10][5][11] Scriban and CADE label this sense Transylvanian.^[10][5][11] The sense is now dated, and DEX keeps it for the form intelighenție.^[2][3]

The compound inteligență artificială “artificial intelligence” names the capacity of advanced technical systems to perform almost like humans;^[3][12][2] DEX 2009 defines it as the branch of computing that builds such systems.^[3][12][2]

Timeline

• 1867–1892 – Maiorescu's Critice, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary, glossed with French intelligence.^[9]
• 1886 – Barcianu records both the faculty and the educated class.^[10]
• 1931 – CADE labels the sense “the intellectuals” Transylvanian.^[11]
• 2000 – inteligență artificială in Marcu's dictionary of neologisms.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. intelligence: the capacity to understand quickly and well, to grasp what is essential and to solve new problems on the basis of past experience; cleverness.^[2][3]
2. inteligență artificială: artificial intelligence, the branch of computing that builds systems able to solve problems that call for human intelligence.^[2][3]
3. An intelligent person.^[2][5]
4. (dated; in the form intelighenție) The intellectuals as a whole, the intelligentsia.^[2][3]

Related words

• inteligent
• intelect
• Latin intelligentia

Usage notes

DEX records the variants inteligință and intelighenție; the second is used for the sense “the intellectuals”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1146
4. ^ 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. inteligență
5. ^ a b c d e Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 648
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. inteligență
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 553
10. ^ a b c Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 284
11. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. inteligență
12. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. inteligență