interoga

Forms

interoga (third-person singular present interoghează, past participle interogat) 1st conjugation^[1] The DA gives both interog and interoghez for the first person of the present, and the spelling interrogă, which was becoming rare in its time.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French interroger and Latin interrogō (“to ask, question”), one of the learned verbs of the 19th century.^[3][4][5][1] Tiktin names New Latin as the source, and Marcu and Maneca add Italian interrogare.^[6][7] The Latin verb is formed inter- (“between”) and rogō (“to ask”).^[8]

The same Latin verb, inherited through the spoken language, gave întreba (“to ask”), so the two are doublets.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1799, with the senses “to question” and “to interrogate in court”.^[6] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms in 1848 lists the long infinitive interogare and explains it with the native a întreba.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Pontbriant in 1862 still gave the Latin interrogare beside the verb and glossed it with French interroger, questionner.^[10] The Latinist Antonescu in 1875 spelled it interrogà and sent the reader to întreb, the native word.^[11] In the early 20th century the DA described it as a verb of questions asked with some authority, used above all in law (questioning a witness or a defendant) and in schools (examining a candidate).^[2] The family grew around it: interogatoriu “interrogation”, interogativ “interrogative”, interogație “question”, each modelled on French and Latin words.^[2]

Timeline

• 1799 – first record.^[6]
• 1848 – interogare in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[9]
• 1862 – interoga in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[10]
• 1869 – Barițiu gives interoga among the equivalents of Hungarian kérdez “to ask”.^[12]
• 1875 – interrogà in Antonescu's dictionary.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To ask someone insistent questions, to question.^[3][4][1]
2. (law) To interrogate a witness or a defendant: Poliția l-a interogat două ore.^[3][4][13]
3. To examine a pupil, student or candidate orally.^[3][4][1]

Word family

• interogare

Related words

• interogație
• întreba
• interogatoriu
• interogativ
• Latin interrogō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. interoga
3. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 516
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, 1150
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. interoga
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. interogá
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. interoga
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ 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, p. s.v. interogare
10. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 367
11. ^ a b Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 149
12. ^ Barițiu, George (1869), Dictionariu unguresc-romanescu, Brașov, p. 295
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 533