inventa

Forms

inventa (third-person singular present inventează, past participle inventat), 1st conjugation^[1] Besides inventez, a first person present invent is also recorded.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French inventer.^{[5][2][6][7][1]} DN gives Italian inventare as a second source.^[3] The DA treats it as a neologism after the French, alongside inventar, inventiv and related words.^[8] The French verb is a back-formation from inventeur (“inventor”), ultimately from Latin inveniō (“to come upon, find”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1837, in the sense “to invent”.^[6] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms (1848) has the long infinitive inventare, defined as finding or imagining something new in the arts or sciences, and gives both inventez and invent for the present.^[9] MDA2's first quotation is from Costache Negruzzi, where everyone “invents” an etymology of his own.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

From “to devise something new” and “to make a technical discovery” the verb passed to “to present imaginary things as real”, and so “to make up, to lie”.^[2][8][3] A figurative sense “to find someone or something at short notice” is recorded too.^[5][8][1]

Timeline

• 1837 – first record, “to invent”.^[6]
• 1848 – inventare in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[9]
• 1862 – Pontbriant glosses it as French “inventer, trouver, créer”.^[10]
• 1872 – MDA2's first quotation, from Negruzzi's writings.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To invent: to create something new that did not exist before; to make a technical discovery.^[2][5][1]
2. (transitive) To present imaginary things as true; to make up; by extension, to lie.^[2][5][3]
3. (transitive, figurative) To find someone or something at short notice for an occasion.^[5][8][1]

Word family

• inventare
• inventator

Related words

• inventar
• inventiv
• inventor
• invenție
• French inventer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 520
3. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
4. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 541
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, 1157
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. inventa
7. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
8. ^ a b c d e 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. inventa
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
10. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich