interesant

Forms

interesant m or n (feminine singular interesantă, masculine plural interesanți, feminine/neuter plural interesante)^[1] Old forms are enteresant and intiresant.^[2] The Uricariul has înteresant in a text MDA2 dates before 1816: „fără chipuri înteresante” “without self-interested schemes”.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French intéressant.^[5][4][6][1] The DA calls it a neologism after French;^[3][2][7] Tiktin and the DN also compare Italian interessante.^[3][2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1804.^[2] In a document of the Uricariul from before 1816 înteresant still means “self-interested”: the town's butcher shops are to be run without chipuri înteresante, schemes for private gain.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense, “worth attention, arousing interest”, is established in Costache Negruzzi, who writes of a face “beautiful and interesting”, and in Odobescu's fapte interesante “interesting facts”.^[3] Said of a person it meant attractive, drawing the looks of others, as in Eminescu's character made atât de interesant by a shade of sadness.^[3][4] From “out of the ordinary” it moved to “odd, strange”.^[5][4] The familiar stare interesantă “interesting condition” means pregnancy.^[8]

Timeline

• 1804 – first record.^[2]
• before 1816 – înteresante “self-interested” in a document of the Uricariul.^[4][3]
• 1870 – Costinescu spells it interessantŭ.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. interesting: arousing interest, worth attention.^[5][4][1]
2. Unusual, out of the ordinary; odd, strange.^[5][4]
3. (of a person) attractive, drawing others' attention.^[4][3]

Related words

• interes
• interesa
• French intéressant

Usage notes

Stare interesantă or poziție interesantă is a familiar euphemism for pregnancy.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. interesánt
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. interesant
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1148
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 515
6. ^ 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. vol. 1, s.v. interesant
7. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. interesant
8. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 650
9. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 554