neînțelegere

Forms

neînțelegere f (plural neînțelegeri)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian ne- + înțelegere, the negative of înțelegere “understanding, agreement”, itself the noun of the verb înțelege.^[2][3][4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 already lists it with four senses: the obscurity of someone's words, lack of understanding or imprudence, disobedience, and discord between two or more people.^[5] MDA2's first record is Duiliu Zamfirescu's novel În război of 1902.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “discord, disagreement” has been the main one since the 19th century: Pontbriant glosses it with French mésintelligence, désunion, désaccord and malentendu, and Costinescu with “disunion, lack of concord”.^[6][7] Its plural neînțelegeri is usual for quarrels and disputes.^[2][8] The sense “misunderstanding”, a confusion caused by a wrong reading of words or of a situation, is the one Scriban illustrates with two people who failed to meet.^[2][9] The senses “disobedience” and “lack of goodwill” of the older dictionaries are no longer current.^[5][4]

Timeline

• 1825 – listed in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[5]
• 1862 – Pontbriant glosses it “disagreement, misunderstanding”.^[6]
• 1870 – Costinescu defines it as disunion, lack of concord.^[7]
• 1902 – in Duiliu Zamfirescu's În război, MDA2's first record.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Lack of understanding; failing to understand or to agree.^[2][4]
2. disagreement, conflict, quarrel: Au avut mai multe neînțelegeri în privința moștenirii. “They had several disputes over the inheritance.”^[2][4]
3. A misunderstanding: confusion caused by a wrong interpretation of a statement or a situation.^[2][4][1]

Related words

• înțelegere
• înțelege
• neînțeles

References

1. ^ a b c 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. 705
3. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. neînțelegere
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 130
5. ^ a b c Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 430
6. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 476
7. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 160
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 192
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 864