mental

Forms

mental m or n (feminine singular mentală, masculine plural mentali, feminine/neuter plural mentale)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French mental.^[2][3][4] Scriban takes it from Late Latin mentālis, formed on mēns (“mind”).^[5] The French word is a borrowing of the 14th century from the Late Latin adjective, which was modelled on spīrituālis and corporālis.^[6]

Romanian also has mintal, the same loan reshaped after minte (“mind”).^[7][8] Wiktionary describes it as formed from Romanian minte + -al after the French and Latin words.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barcianu's Romanian–German dictionary of 1886 glosses it “inward, in thought”, with reservație mentală “mental reservation”.^[9] Damé's dictionary has calcul mental “mental arithmetic”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the older dictionaries mental is the usual form: Șăineanu has calcul mental and alienațiune mentală “insanity”,^[11] and Scriban calls mintal a wrong form.^[5] The Academy dictionaries chose the other way: the DLR, DLRLC, DEX 1998 and the DN list mental only as a variant of mintal, whose first quotation in the DLR is Caragiale's apucăturile mentale “mental habits”.^{[12][13][14][7]} DEX 2009 gives mental an entry of its own, for what relates to mentality, and also as a noun, mentalul, for the mental make-up of a group.^[2]

Timeline

• 1886 – in Barcianu's dictionary, “inward, in thought”.^[9]
• 1893–1895 – calcul mental in Damé's dictionary.^[10]
• 1929 – in Șăineanu's dictionary.^[11]
• 1939 – Scriban prefers mental to mintal.^[5]
• 1978 – a second mental “of the chin” in the DN.^[4]
• 2009 – DEX gives mental its own sense, “relating to mentality”.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. mental: of the mind; done in the mind; a variant of mintal.^[14][7][5]
2. Relating to mentality.^[2]

Noun

1. The mental make-up shared by a group, its mentality.^[2]

Related words

• mintal
• minte
• mentalitate

Usage notes

Mental and mintal are one loan in two forms.^[7][8] The Academy dictionaries treat mintal as the standard form for “of the mind”, as in debil mintal “mentally retarded” and alienație mintală “insanity”,^[8][15] while DEX 2009 keeps mental for what relates to mentality.^[2] A rare homograph mental “of the chin”, from French mental and Italian mentale, is recorded in the DN of 1978.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b 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. 640
3. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
4. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1487
5. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 797
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
8. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 657
9. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 378
10. ^ a b Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État
11. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 394
12. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mintal
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 57
14. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan” (1998), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, 2nd ed., București: Univers Enciclopedic, p. 620
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 18