laptop

Forms

laptop n (plural laptopuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English laptop, a recent loan that keeps the English spelling.^[2][3][4][1] It is pronounced as if spelled ⟨leptop⟩, after the English sound of the word, and takes the Romanian neuter plural ending: ⟨laptopuri⟩.^[2][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dimitrescu's dictionary of recent words quotes it first from a newspaper of 23 June 1998, in the hyphenated plural lap-top-uri, in a list of office equipment bought by members of parliament.^[5] The sense was already the portable computer.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The press first wrote the word with hyphens, lap-top-uri, and by 2005 as laptop-uri, still with a hyphen before the ending; an advertisement of that year offered laptops at desktop prices.^[5] The Academy's dictionaries list it with the plural laptopuri and the sense of a small, light personal computer that can be carried about.^[2][4][3] MDA2 takes its first record from the manuscript of the DLR.^[3]

Timeline

• 1998 – lap-top-uri in a newspaper, the first dated record.^[5]
• 2005 – laptop-uri in an advertisement.^[5]
• 2009 – DEX 2009 records laptop with the plural laptopuri and the pronunciation léptop.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A laptop: a portable personal computer, small and light, running on a battery or on mains power.^[2][3][4][6]

Usage notes

The word is pronounced léptop, and its plural is laptopuri; the press long wrote it with a hyphen, laptop-uri.^[2][4][5]

References

1. ^ a b c 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. 577
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, 1312
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. laptop
5. ^ a b c d e f Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE)
6. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. laptop