necesar

Forms

necesar m or n (feminine singular necesară, masculine plural necesari, feminine/neuter plural necesare)^[1] Older texts have necesariu, necesarie and neceser: Heliade wrote „cea mai primitivă și necesarie pe atunci din științe fu astronomia” “the most primitive and necessary of the sciences at that time was astronomy”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French nécessaire and Latin necessārius, the two sources MDA2, the DLR and NODEX give;^{[3][2][4][5][6]} DEX and DILF also name Italian necessario.^{[3][2][4][5][6]} Tiktin and Scriban name only the Latin word.^[7][8] Wiktionary gives French and Italian.^[1] The Latin adjective is formed necesse (“necessary”) with the suffix -ārius.^[1] Nocentini explains the Latin word as an old noun formed with the negative prefix ne- on a stem of cēdō (“to go, withdraw”), “no going back”.^[9]

Graur lists it among the Romanian words of the family of that Latin verb, with acces, antecesor and succes.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a calendar of 1794, which speaks of the first of the conditions needed for a wedding, written necessere.^[2][3][7]

Semantic evolution

The adjective meant from the start “required, indispensable”.^[2] In philosophy it took the sense of what cannot fail to be: Șăineanu's example is heat as the necessary effect of fire.^[11] Used as a noun, necesarul is what one needs, especially to live, and strictul necesar the bare minimum.^[8][5]

After French nécessaire, the neuter noun also named a small case of tools for sewing or for the toilet when travelling.^[8][12][11] Romanian economic language of the 20th century used muncă necesară “necessary labour”, the part of the work that produces the worker's own keep.^[3][13]

Timeline

• 1794 – first record, necessere, in a calendar.^[2][3]
• 19th century – the forms necesarie in Heliade and necesariu.^[2]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[2]
• 1939 – Scriban records the noun for a small case of sewing tools.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. necessary, indispensable: needed, that one cannot do without;^[5][3] strictul necesar “the bare minimum”.^[5][3]
2. That cannot fail to exist or to happen under given conditions; inevitable.^[5][3]

Noun

1. necesarul: what is needed for something, the requirement: necesarul de apă al unui oraș “the water requirement of a town”.^[5][6]
2. (dated) A small case with sewing or toilet articles.^[8][12]

Related words

• Latin necessārius

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. necesar
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, 118
4. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional
5. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 698
6. ^ a b c Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. necesar
7. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. necesar
8. ^ a b c d e Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 860
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 30
11. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 422
12. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 182