inteligent

Forms

inteligent m or n (feminine singular inteligentă, masculine plural inteligenți, feminine/neuter plural inteligente)^[1] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 spells it with a double ⟨ll⟩, as in French and Latin: intelligent.^[2] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet it was written интелиӂент.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French intelligent and directly Latin intelligēns (“discerning”), as DEX, MDA2, MDN and Wiktionary give it.^[3][4][5][1] The Academy dictionary describes it as formed after French,^[6] while Scriban gives only the Latin word.^[7] The Latin adjective is the present participle of intellegō (“to understand”), formed inter (“between”) and legō (“to choose, read”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Negulici's dictionary of 1848, which defines it as having the faculty of understanding, able to understand, skilful.^[2] MDA2's first record is from Odobescu's writings, published in 1887.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word first described people who understand quickly and well, and was soon applied to what shows intelligence: a look, a remark, a pleasure.^[6][8] Older dictionaries also give “skilful, handy”, said of a servant.^[9][7] Scriban rejected, as a barbarism after German, its use for “educated”.^[7] In the early 21st century it came to describe machines and products partly run by electronics: automobil inteligent, ambalaj inteligent.^[10]

Timeline

• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms, the first record.^[2]
• 1870 – inteligentŭ in Costinescu's dictionary, with French intelligent.^[11]
• 1886 – glossed with German verständig in Barcianu's dictionary.^[12]
• 1887 – Odobescu's writings, MDA2's first record.^[4]
• 2007–2009 – said of cars and food packaging run by electronics.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. intelligent, clever: quick to understand; deștept, ager.^[3][4]
2. Showing intelligence: un răspuns inteligent “a clever answer”.^[3][8]
3. (of devices and products) smart: working partly through an electronic device.^[10]

Related words

• inteligență
• înțelege
• Latin intellegō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. 228
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 513
4. ^ 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, 1146
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. inteligent
6. ^ a b 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. inteligent
7. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 648
8. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 529
9. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. inteligent
10. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. inteligent
11. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 553
12. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 284