lecție

Forms

lecție f (plural lecții)^[1] Older variants are lecțiune and the popular leție: an 1829 text quoted by the DLR tells of a teacher given two rooms in the school „unde să-ș facă lețiile sale” “where he could hold his lessons”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin lēctiō (“reading”), also borrowed from German Lektion (“lesson”).^[4][3][2][1] Ciorănescu derives it from Latin with the pronunciation of the German word, of the 19th century, and compares Polish lekcja and Russian ле́кция (lékcija);^[4][5] Tiktin calls it an indirect borrowing of the Latin.^[4][5] The Marcu–Maneca dictionary also compares Italian lezione.^[6]

The German word was borrowed from the same Latin word twice: as Old High German lekza (“reading in church”) in the 9th century, and again in the 16th century with the senses “lecture”, “unit of learning” and “sharp reprimand”.^[7] The Latin noun is formed from legō (“to gather; to read”) with the suffix -tiō.^[8] Graur lists in the family of the Latin verb the inherited lemn “wood”, from lignum (gathered sticks), and alege “to choose”, from allegō, beside the neologism lectură.^[9] Ciorănescu compares lector, from French lecteur.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1781, with the sense “lesson, school lesson”.^[5] MDA2's first record is Naum Petrovici's translation of Villaume's pedagogy for town and village schools, published in 1818.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the school lesson, the teaching of a subject in a set time; an 1829 text already has the popular form lețiile.^[2] Costinescu in 1870 records the homework a teacher sets, advice, a reprimand and the figurative lesson of experience.^[10] The phrase a da lecții “to give private lessons” is in Negruzzi.^[10]

In philology the form lecțiune kept a sense of its own: the reading of a word or passage in a manuscript or edition.^[11][10] The colloquial i-am dat o lecție “I taught him a lesson” extends the reprimand to a beating.^[12][5]

Timeline

• 1781 – the first record.^[5]
• 1818 – in Naum Petrovici's translation of Villaume's pedagogy.^[3]
• 1829 – the popular form lețiile.^[2]
• 1870 – lecțiune “lesson; homework; advice” in Costinescu.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lesson: the basic unit of school teaching, held with a class in a set time; a school period given to one subject.^[11][3]
2. homework, what a pupil has to learn or write at home.^[11][3]
3. (in the form lecțiune) A reading of a text in its various manuscripts or editions.^[11]
4. Advice or a rule of conduct given in a reproving tone; a reprimand.^[11][3]
5. (figurative) A lesson learnt from an experience, especially an unpleasant one.^[3][6]

Related words

• lector
• lectură
• Latin lēctiō

Usage notes

Set phrases include a da lecții “to give private lessons”, a lua lecții “to take lessons”, a ieși la lecție “to be questioned in class” and a-și face lecțiile “to do one's homework”.^[11][3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lecție
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1333
4. ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. lecție
5. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. lecție
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. lecție
7. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 571
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 52
10. ^ 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. lecțiune
11. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 583
12. ^ Breban, Vasile (1980), Dicționar al limbii române contemporane de uz curent, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 315