negustor

Forms

negustor m (plural negustori, feminine equivalent negustoreasă)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2][3] DEX and the DLR give two sources: it is either inherited from Latin negōtiātōrius or formed from Romanian neguța (“to trade”) + -tor.^[2][4] MDA2 compares the same Latin word, and REW lists the Romanian word under negōtiātor (“wholesale trader”).^[5][6] The Latin noun is formed from negōtior (“to do business”) with the suffix -tor, and the verb from negōtium (“business”).^[7][1]

Ciorănescu and Tiktin explain the word within Romanian.^[3][8] For Ciorănescu the word is a shortened form of the older neguțător, made from the verb, itself from negoț “trade”, which continues the same Latin noun.^[3] He notes that REW and Rosetti take the long form from the Latin noun, and that Pascu proposed an Italian source.^[3] Tiktin derives it from the same verb and compares the Latin.^[8] Wiktionary gives both explanations and calls the neologism negociator a doublet.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1493.^[8] In Romanian texts the old form neguțători appears in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583) in the sense “negotiators”.^[4] Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură (1581) has the sense “merchant”: „Neguțătorul bagă-ș toată avuția sa în negoțul ce face” “the merchant puts all his wealth into the trade he does”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The long form neguțător (also neguțitor, negoțitor) was the usual one in the old language, and the DLR quotes it from the 16th to the 19th century.^[4][8] The short form negustor is first recorded as nigustori in 1784, in Gaster's chrestomathy.^[5][4] Neculce uses negustor in his chronicle (c. 1743).^[4] Today neguțător is obsolete and regional.^[2] Ciorănescu also records a slang sense “cheated person”.^[3]

Timeline

• 1493 – the first record, according to Tiktin.^[8]
• c. 1563–1583 – neguțători “negotiators” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4]
• 1581 – neguțătorul “the merchant” in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[4]
• 1604–1618 – merchants complain of robbers in a document.^[4]
• 1660 – neguțător glosses Slavonic купецъ “merchant” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1784 – the short form nigustori.^[5][4]
• 1893–1895 – Damé glosses negustor with French négociant, commerçant.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A merchant, trader; a person engaged in private trade.^[2][5]
2. (obsolete, in the form neguțător) A negotiator.^[4]

Word family

• negustoreasă
• negustoresc
• negustorie

Related words

• neguța
• neguțător
• negoț
• negociator
• Latin negōtiātor

Usage notes

Negustor de piei de cloșcă “a dealer in hen skins” or negustor greu ca fulgul pe apă is said of a poor trader in worthless goods.^[5][11] The feminine is negustoreasă.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 704
3. ^ a b c d e 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
4. ^ 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. negustor
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 128
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5880
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. negustor
9. ^ 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. neguțător
10. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. negustor
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. negustor