monitor

Forms

monitor n (plural monitoare)^[1] For a person it is a masculine and feminine noun, monitor, monitoare, plural monitori, monitoare.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French moniteur, with Latin monitor (“adviser, overseer”) as a second model, one of the 19th-century neologisms with more than one model.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The French word was borrowed about 1455 from the Latin, which is formed on monitum, the supine of moneō (“to remind, advise”).^[7][8] The technical senses, a control receiver or screen, came later from English monitor and Italian monitor, and the computer screen from English.^[4][9]

Graur places the word in the same Latin family as mustra, monument and monedă.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Negulici's dictionary of 1848 has it for one who makes something known and for a pupil who directs the others.^[11][3] DLR records the sense “one who warns, advises, admonishes” only from the dictionaries of the 19th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The school sense, a pupil put in charge of the class in the teacher's absence or helping the weaker ones, was current in the 19th and early 20th centuries and is now obsolete.^[3][8] As in French, the word became a title of newspapers, above all Monitorul Oficial, the official gazette.^[3][12][7] After 1975 the dictionaries add technical senses: a receiver or screen that checks the quality of a broadcast, a device that detects ionizing radiation, and a supervising computer program.^[4] The press of the late 1990s uses it for a computer screen.^[9] DEX 2009 also records a ski instructor.^[2]

Timeline

• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms, the first record.^[11]
• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary has the title of periodicals.^[3]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it “warner” and “a kind of ship”.^[13]
• 1975 – the technical senses in the DEX.^[4]
• 1998 – a computer screen, in the Iași press.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete) A pupil who kept order in the class when the teacher was away; also a top pupil who helped the teacher by tutoring a group.^[2][3]
2. An instructor or supervisor of beginners at skiing.^[2]
3. A control device of a telecommunications installation that shows the picture taken by the cameras; a monitor screen, especially of a computer.^[2][9]
4. A device that detects ionizing radiation; in computing, a supervisor program.^[4]
5. (followed by a qualifier) Title of some official periodicals: Monitorul Oficial.^[2][3]

Related words

• Latin moneō

Usage notes

DEX lists a separate monitor¹ (plural monitoare), a small armoured river warship with turreted guns, from French monitor.^[2][5] Scriban explains that the type was named after a famous American ship of the war of 1860–1865.^[8] Maiorescu's speeches tell how a Turkish monitor was sunk: „Scufundă monitorul turcesc”.^[3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 669
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. monitor
4. ^ 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. 2, 49
5. ^ a b Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 830
9. ^ a b c d Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE)
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
11. ^ a b 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
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 407
13. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 389