mobil

Forms

mobil m or n (feminine singular mobilă, masculine plural mobili, feminine/neuter plural mobile)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French mobile, with Latin mōbilis (“movable”) as a second source in DEX, MDA2 and the DLR; the neologism dictionaries add Italian mobile.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The adjective is formed from Latin moveō + -bilis;^[1][6] French meuble, the source of Romanian mobilă “furniture”, is the inherited outcome of the same word.^[1][6][7][8] Gabinschi notes that German and Russian took the word as well.^[9]

The noun “mobile phone” stands for telefon mobil, recorded from 1992.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is I. Genilie's geography, in the sense “moving”: „Orizonul … este mobil sau mișcător” “the horizon is mobile or moving”.^[3][4] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 has the adjective “that moves, that can be moved; changeable” and the noun “moving force; motive”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Several set phrases came with the word: avere mobilă or bunuri mobile “movable property” in law, sărbători mobile “movable feasts”, trupe mobile “mobile troops”, caractere mobile “movable type”.^[3][12] The figurative “changeable, fickle” and the noun “motive” were in place by the mid-19th century.^[11][12] In grammar a substantiv mobil is a noun that forms a feminine from a masculine or the reverse.^[3]

In the 1990s telefon mobil and then the noun mobil came to mean a mobile phone.^[10][2] The noun's plurals are mobile and mobiluri.^[1][2]

Timeline

• 1848 – adjective and noun in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[11]
• 1870 – sărbători mobile, trupe mobile in Costinescu's dictionary.^[12]
• 1992 – telefoane mobile in the press.^[10]
• 1999 – the noun mobil “mobile phone”.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Moving, or that can be moved: pod mobil “drawbridge”;^[13] bunuri mobile “movable property”.^[2][3][1]
2. Unstable, changeable, variable; of the eyes or face, quick to change expression.^[2]

Noun

1. (physics) A body in motion.^[2]
2. A motive, the cause that drives an action; plural mobiluri.^[2]
3. A mobile phone.^[2][1][14]

Related words

• mobilă
• imobil
• automobil
• Latin mōbilis

Usage notes

In law the adjective is often stressed on the first syllable, móbil.^[2][4] DLR and MDA2 also list a separate neuter mobil as a variant of mobilă “furniture”.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 664
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 35
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mobil
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. mobil
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 65
9. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 130
10. ^ a b c d Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. mobil
11. ^ a b c 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. mobil
12. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 108
13. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 823
14. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. mobil