neguța

Forms

neguța (third-person singular present neguțează, past participle neguțat) 1st conjugation^[1] The first person present is neguțez, rarely negoț; old and popular variants are negoța, nigoța and niguța.^[2][3]

Etymology

Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu take it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *negōtiāre, the active form of negōtior (“to do business, trade”);^[4][5][1] Ciorănescu derives it instead from Romanian negoț.^[4] DEX, DLR and MDA2 give both views.^[6][7][2] The Latin verb is formed on negōtium (“business, affair”).^[8][1]

It is a doublet of negocia.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Gospel text of 1551–1553, at Matthew 10:29 (the sparrows sold for a farthing).^[9] Coresi's Tetraevanghel has it in Luke 17:28, „mânca, bea, neguța, vindea”, for the Slavonic word for “they bought”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the verb meant “to buy, to acquire by trade”, a sense Tiktin records in the old language and in Moldavia and Transylvania.^[9] Neculce uses it for ransoming a prince from the Poles for seventy purses of money.^[9] It also meant “to trade, to buy and sell” and, reflexive, “to haggle, to bargain”, recorded in 1680.^[7][6] From bargaining came “to negotiate”, as of a peace treaty or a match.^[7] Today it is dated or popular.^[6]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – in a Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book (Matthew 10:29), the first record.^[9]
• c. 1660–1670 – in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• 1680 – reflexive se negoțară “they bargained”.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (dated, popular) To trade, to buy and sell.^[6][3][1]
2. (reflexive) To haggle, to bargain;^[6][7][1] (figurative) to negotiate with someone for a favour in exchange for something.^[6][7][1]
3. To buy.^[6][9]

Related words

• negoț
• negustor
• negocia

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 128
3. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 190
4. ^ a b 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
5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. neguța
6. ^ 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. 704
7. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. neguța
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. neguța
10. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. neguța