onora

Forms

onora (third-person singular present onorează, past participle onorat), 1st conjugation^[1] Early prints also double the ⟨n⟩: onnora, as in „Să-l onnorăm pentru victoria de la Lepanto” “let us honour him for the victory of Lepanto”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing of the 19th century with several models, which DEX, DILF and the DLR name together: it is borrowed from Latin honōrō (“to honour”), borrowed from French honorer, borrowed from Italian onorare.^[4][5][2] MDA2 gives the same three languages, Tiktin and Pontbriant only the Latin and Italian or the Latin, Marcu the Latin and French, and CADE only the French.^{[3][6][7][8][9]} Wiktionary allows either the French or the Italian verb, or a direct learned borrowing from Latin.^[1]

The Latin verb is formed on honor (“honour, repute”).^[10][1] The French verb was itself borrowed from Latin in the first half of the 10th century, and the Italian one is recorded from the 13th century.^[11][12] The noun onoare belongs to the same family.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1810.^[6] MDA2's first record is Ioann Theodorovici's Romanian version of Pavel Kengyllâcz's universal history (1824), where a people will honour a man as a god: „Pre el ca pre un dumnezeu îl vor onora (cinsti)”; the old verb cinsti is added in brackets to explain the new one.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was “to show respect, to do honour to someone”, still the main one.^[2][4] Negulici's dictionary of new words of 1848 still explains the verb by paraphrases such as “to give honour, to respect, to hold in high esteem”.^[13] Șăineanu (1929) lists the shades of the time: to honour one's parents, to esteem merit, to bring honour to one's country, to grant a favour, and reflexively “to pride oneself”.^[14]

The commercial sense “to pay a bill or a debt when due” was there by Tiktin's time and became a standard sense in the dictionaries of the 1950s.^[6][15] From it comes “to pay, to remunerate”.^[4][16] MDA2 adds folk and regional senses: “to congratulate” and “to give hospitality to”.^[3]

Timeline

• 1810 – the first record that Tiktin gives.^[6]
• 1824 – onora “to honour” in Teodorovici's universal history, MDA2's first record.^[3][2]
• 1848 – Negulici's dictionary of neologisms explains onorare by older words.^[13]
• 1862 – Pontbriant's dictionary glosses it with French honorer, vénérer, respecter.^[7]
• 1955–1957 – the DLRLC gives the sense “to pay (a bill, a debt) on time”.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To show respect and esteem to someone or something;^[4][3] (familiar) to grant someone a favour that is an honour for them.^[4][3]
2. To make someone worthy of honour or praise: Gestul acesta îl onorează.^[4][8]
3. To pay a debt or a bill of exchange on time; by extension, to remunerate.^[4][16][6]
4. (regional) To congratulate;^[3] (popular) to receive someone as a guest.^[3]
5. (reflexive, rare) To pride oneself on something.^[3][14]

Related words

• onoare
• cinsti
• Latin honōrō

References

1. ^ a b c 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. onora
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 213
4. ^ 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. 743
5. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria
6. ^ 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. onora
7. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 510
8. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
9. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. onora
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. honōrō
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București
14. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 444
15. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 269
16. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România