intenție

Forms

intenție f (plural intenții)^[1] A longer variant intențiune was current in the 19th century: Eminescu wrote both intențiune and intenție.^[2][3] Today it is listed as a variant.^[4]

Etymology

It is a 19th-century neologism, borrowed from French intention, with Latin intentio as a second source, which the Romanian dictionaries name beside French.^[4][5][6][1] The DA calls it a neologism after French, and Tiktin a learned Latin word, partly through another language.^[3][2]

The French word, written Old French intencion about 1180, is borrowed from Latin; it was respelled after the Latin form.^[7][1] The Latin noun meant “stretching, tension”, then “effort towards an aim”, and is formed from Latin intendō + -tiō.^[7][8][1] intendō (“to stretch out, direct”) is a compound of tendō (“to stretch”).^[7] Romanian întinde continues the same Latin verb.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1811.^[2] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms has intenție in 1848 with the gloss “will, wish, thought of doing something”.^[10] MDA2's first record is Alexandrescu's Meditații of 1863, where the speaker cannot understand who told them “that we had such good intentions” („că aveam... intenții așa bune”).^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the French and Latin sense “aim, plan, purpose”.^[3][4] Set phrases grew around it: cu intenție “on purpose” and fără intenție “unintentionally”, cu intenția de a… “with the aim of …”, and a face cuiva proces de intenție “to accuse someone of thoughts they never had”, which Maiorescu used.^[3][4] A avea intenții serioase cu cineva “to mean to marry someone” is recorded by Agârbiceanu; the DA traces the Transylvanian a avea intenție să… to German ernste Absichten haben.^[3]

In law the word names the form of guilt of a person who knows that an act is unlawful and foresees or accepts its effects.^[4][6] The verb intenționa was formed after French intentionner.^[3]

Timeline

• 1811 – the first record Tiktin gives.^[2]
• 1848 – intenție in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[10]
• 1863 – intenții in Alexandrescu's Meditații.^[5][3]
• late 19th century – the variant intențiune in Eminescu, beside intenție.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An intention, the wish or thought of doing something; a plan or project.^[4][5]
2. An aim or purpose.^[5][1]
3. (law) intent: the guilty state of mind of someone who knows that an act is unlawful and foresees, wants or accepts its effects.^[4][6]

Word family

• intenționa
• intenționat

Related words

• întinde
• tendință
• French intention
• Latin intentio

Usage notes

Cu intenție means “on purpose” and fără intenție “unintentionally”;^[4][5] a avea intenții serioase means to be set on carrying out a plan, or on marrying someone: Are intenții serioase cu fata vecinului.^[4][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. intenție
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. intenție
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 514
5. ^ 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, 1147
6. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. intenție
7. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. intentio
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
10. ^ a b 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