numeros

Forms

numeros m or n (feminine singular numeroasă, masculine plural numeroși, feminine/neuter plural numeroase)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin numerōsus (“numerous, manifold”).^[2][3][1] The DEX, Marcu and Wiktionary also give borrowed from Italian numeroso as a source.^[2][3][1] MDA2, the DLR, Tiktin and Scriban give only the Latin word.^[4][5][6][7] Wiktionary adds that it can be analysed in Romanian as număr with the suffix -os.^[1] The Latin adjective is formed on numerus (“number”) with -ōsus, and the Italian word is borrowed from it.^[8][1]

An older variant număros was reshaped by association with the noun for “number”.^[5][4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first found in the Curierul românesc of 1829, where an assembly “will be numerous”, va fi număroasă.^[5] MDA2's first record is the same paper in 1834, with număroșilor săi vrăjmași “his numerous enemies”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The meaning “many in number, in large quantity” has not changed.^[2][5] With a collective noun in the singular it means “large, with many members”, as of an assembly or a family.^[5] Tiktin dates the word in dictionaries from Bobb (1832).^[6] The 19th-century dictionaries give it with French nombreux and Latin numerosus.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 1829 – număroasă of an assembly in the Curierul românesc.^[5]
• 1832 – in Bobb's dictionary.^[6]
• 1834 – număroșilor in the Curierul românesc, MDA2's first record.^[4][5]
• 1865 – numeros in Pisone's dictionary, glossed with Latin numerosus.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. numerous, present in large numbers or quantity; many.^[2][4][1]
2. Of a collective noun in the singular: large, with many members: armată numeroasă “a large army”.^[5][7]

Related words

• număr
• Latin numerus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. 725
3. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. numeros
4. ^ 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, 176
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. numeros
6. ^ 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. numerós
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 880
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Pisone, Domițian (1865), Dictionariu românescu, latinescu, germanescu și francescu, lucrat după sistemul Lexiconului de Buda, București: Typografia Ioann Weiss, p. 256
10. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 184