invitație

Forms

invitație f (plural invitații)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French invitation and also borrowed from Latin invitatio, as DEX, MDA2 and the neologism dictionaries give it.^[2][3][4] Tiktin names French alone, and Negulici Latin.^[5][6] It can also be analysed as from Romanian invita + -ție.^[1] The Latin noun is formed on invītō (“to invite”) with -tiō.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1832.^[5] Negulici in 1848 defines it as the act of inviting.^[6] MDA2's first record is much later, Cezar Petrescu's Calea Victoriei of 1931.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the word first meant the host's invitation at a meal, especially to drink.^[7] In Romanian it meant from the start the act of inviting, a call or summons; the concrete sense, a printed card or a short letter inviting someone, is the second sense of the modern dictionaries.^[6][2][3] The DLRLC also records a figurative use, the invitation that a landscape seems to make.^[8] The variant invitațiune is dated.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1832 – the first record.^[5]
• 1848 – Negulici: “the act of inviting”.^[6]
• 1931 – Cezar Petrescu's Calea Victoriei, MDA2's first record.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An invitation: the act of inviting or of being invited; a call, a summons.^[2][3]
2. An invitation card or short letter by which someone is invited somewhere.^[2][4]

Related words

• invita
• invitat
• French invitation

Usage notes

The plural is invitații; the older variant invitațiune is dated.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 521
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1159
4. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. invitație
5. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. invitáție
6. ^ a b c d 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. invitație
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 543