navetă

Forms

navetă f (plural navete)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French navette, the source given by DEX, MDA2, DLR and Wiktionary for every sense.^[2][3][4][1] For the space shuttle, Dimitrescu takes the French phrase navette spatiale as modelled on English space shuttle.^[5]

The French word for the weaver's shuttle is a diminutive of nef (“ship”), formed after Latin nāvis (“ship”) with the suffix -ette in the 13th century, from the boat-like shape of the tool.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and DLR first record the word in Protopopescu and Popescu's dictionary of new words of 1862, as the shuttle of a loom, a sense now rare.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

From the shuttle of the loom the word passed to a long needle of wood or steel for making nets and filet lace.^[4][3] The shuttle's to-and-fro motion gave the phrase a face naveta “to travel back and forth regularly”, as French had faire la navette from the mid-18th century; from it navetă came to mean the regular journey itself, above all commuting between two towns, and a vehicle that runs back and forth on a route.^[4][6][2] Dimitrescu records two newer senses in the press: a plastic crate for bottles and food, from 1978, and the space shuttle, from 1977.^[5]

Timeline

• 1862 – first record, in a dictionary of new words, “shuttle of a loom”.^[3][4]
• 1939 – the oil plant navetă, in Simionescu's Flora României.^[3][4]
• 1977 – navetă spațială “space shuttle” in the press.^[5]
• 1978 – “crate for food products”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rare) The shuttle of a loom;^[3][4] suveică.^[3][4]
2. A long needle for making nets and filet lace.^[2][3]
3. Regular travel there and back, usually between two nearby towns; commuting: a face naveta “to commute”.^[2][1]
4. A vehicle that runs back and forth regularly between two points;^[2][7] navetă spațială “space shuttle”.^[2][7]
5. A compartmented crate for carrying food products such as bottles, bread or milk.^[2][5]

Word family

• navetist

Usage notes

DEX, MDA2 and DLR list a second navetă, an oil plant related to rape (Brassica rapa oleifera), first recorded in 1939 and also borrowed from French navette.^[2][3][4] In French this is a separate word: the TLFi derives the plant name from Old French nef “turnip” (the base of navet), not from the word for a ship.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. 691
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. 2, 100
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. navetă
5. ^ a b c d e Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. navetă
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. navetă
8. ^ Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard, p. s.v. navette