investiga

Forms

investiga (present investighez, third person investighează; past participle investigat), first conjugation.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowed from Latin investīgō (“to track, search out”);^[1][3][4][2] DEX and MDN also name borrowed from Italian investigare.^[1][3][4][2] The DA and DN give only the Latin word, and the DA calls it a Latinism used mostly in Transylvania.^[5][6]

The Latin verb is formed with in- on vestīgō (“to track”), related to vestīgium (“footprint, trace”); its literal sense is “to follow someone's traces”.^[7][5] Italian has had the verb since the 14th century.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in Barițiu's Hungarian–Romanian dictionary of 1869, which gives investiga among the Romanian equivalents of nyomoz “to trace, investigate” and vallat “to question”.^[9][10] Antonescu's dictionary of 1875 glosses it with French rechercher.^[11] MDA2's first record is the DA itself (1913).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The DA (1913) still called the verb rare, while its nouns investigare and especially investigație were common in Odobescu, Maiorescu and Ion Ionescu.^[5] DLRLC (1955–1957) still marks the verb as rare.^[12] DN notes its use above all for medical examinations.^[13]

Timeline

• 1869 – in Barițiu's Hungarian–Romanian dictionary.^[9]
• 1875 – in Antonescu's dictionary.^[11]
• 1913 – the DA describes it as a rare Transylvanian Latinism.^[5][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To investigate, to examine; to make investigations, especially medical ones.^[1][13]
2. To study or analyse a matter closely.^[14]

Word family

• investigare

Related words

• investigație
• investigator

References

1. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 521
2. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
3. ^ 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, 1158
4. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
5. ^ 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. investiga
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
7. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. investigare
8. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. investigare
9. ^ a b Barițiu, George (1869), Dictionariu unguresc-romanescu, Brașov, p. 404
10. ^ Barițiu, George (1869), Dictionariu unguresc-romanescu, Brașov, p. 608
11. ^ a b Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 152
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 542
13. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. investiga
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. investiga