neobișnuit

Forms

neobișnuit m or n (feminine singular neobișnuită, masculine plural neobișnuiți, feminine/neuter plural neobișnuite)^[1] An older form is neobicinuit: „nici pe vreo întâmplare neobicinuită” “nor on some unusual chance” (Marcovici, 1839).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian ne- + obișnuit (“usual”).^[5][4][2][1] obișnuit is the past participle of obișnui, which comes from an older obicinui, formed on obicină “custom”, a word from Bulgarian.^[1][6] The old form ⟨neobicinuit⟩ keeps that older verb.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1694.^[3] MDA2's first record is the form neobicinuită in Marcovici's book of 1839.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Scriban gave it as “not used to, unaccustomed” and “not in use”, beside “unusual”; Șăineanu has the same two senses.^[7][8] Today it means “out of the ordinary”, often in praise, as in Vlahuță's „o neobișnuită frumusețe de sunete” “an unusual beauty of sounds”, and also “strange, odd”.^[2][5] As an adverb before de it is an intensifier: neobișnuit de cald “unusually warm”.^[4][7]

Timeline

• 1694 – the first record.^[3]
• 1839 – neobicinuită in Marcovici.^[4][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Out of the ordinary, having a character of its own; unique; by extension, extraordinary.^[5][4][1]
2. Strange, bizar, odd.^[5][4]

Adverb

1. (followed by de) Extremely, unusually: neobișnuit de frig “unusually cold”.^[4]

Related words

• obicei

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. neobișnuit
3. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. neobișnuit
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 135
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 707
6. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 728
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 866
8. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 427