negoț

Forms

negoț n (plural negoțuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin negōtium (“business, occupation”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The Latin noun is formed from nec (“not”) and ōtium (“leisure”).^[7][1] The REW lists the Romanian word with Occitan neotz.^[8]

Pascu proposed a borrowing from Italian negozio instead.^[2][1] Ciorănescu keeps the traditional view: the plural ⟨negoațe⟩, already recorded in the 16th century, has the diphthong of an inherited word.^[2][1]

The derivatives have their own debates. neguța “to trade” is formed on the noun according to Ciorănescu, while Pușcariu and Candrea–Densusianu take it from Vulgar Latin *negōtiāri.^[2] neguțător “merchant” is formed with the suffix -tor for Ciorănescu, from Latin negōtiātor for the REW.^[9][2] Pascu took it from Italian.^[2] negustor is a shortened form of it.^[2] The verb negocia and its family are separate, later loans from French.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), in the Epistle of James: „Și vremu face negoțu și dobândă” “and we will trade and make gain”.^[5][3] Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581 has the plural in the sense “affairs”: „unii amu la satele lor e alții la negoațe” “some to their villages and others to their business”.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

In the oldest texts the plural means business or occupations in general.^[5][4] The sense “trade” is also old: Varlaam writes of the cattle trade, „negoțul boilor”, and a text of 1691 advises never to lie in one's trade.^[5][3] A concrete sense “merchandise, wares” appears in the old legal texts and in Neculce, and survived regionally in Transylvania and the Banat.^[3][10][11] In Maramureș and Transylvania the word has also come to mean prosperity and wealth.^[4][12]

Tiktin notes that the modern standard language prefers comerț.^[3] Wiktionary labels the word rare.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – negoțu in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[5][3]
• 1581 – the plural negoațe “affairs” in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[4][5]
• 1643 – negoțul boilor “the cattle trade” in Varlaam's Cazania.^[5]
• 1691 – negoț “trade” in a document quoted by Tiktin.^[3][5]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses negótz with Latin merx “goods”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. trade, commerce: buying and selling goods, especially as private business.^[6][1]
2. A commercial transaction, a bargain.^[6][4]
3. (old and popular) merchandise, wares.^[6][11]
4. (old, in the plural) Affairs, occupations.^[4][5]
5. (regional, Transylvania and Maramureș) Prosperity, wealth.^[4][12]

Word family

• neguța
• neguțător
• neguțători
• neguțătorie
• negustor
• negustoresc
• negustorie

Related words

• negocia
• Latin negōtium

Usage notes

The plural negoțuri is rare; the old plural was negoațe.^[6][4][3] The old locution de negoț meant “for sale”.^[4][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. negoț
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. negoț
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 126
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. negoț
6. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 703
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5881
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5880
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 863
11. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 187
12. ^ a b Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. negoț
13. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 405