orbită

Forms

orbită f (plural orbite)^[1] MDA2 records an older variant orbit.^[2] Scriban stressed it orbítă and preferred órbită, as in Latin.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French orbite, with Latin orbita as a second source.^{[4][2][5][6][1]} Marcu and Maneca give the French and compare Italian orbita.^[7] The Latin noun meant “wheel track”, then the course of a heavenly body, and is derived from orbis (“circle”).^[8][3] French took it in 1314 as a term of anatomy for the eye socket, and used it in astronomy from 1676.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is Gheorghe Șincai's manuscript translation from German, Învățătura firească spre surparea superstiției norodului, made between 1804 and 1808.^[2] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 gives both senses: the path a planet describes and, in anatomy, the hollow that holds the eye.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The astronomical and anatomical senses came in together from French and are both in the 19th-century dictionaries.^[9][10] In mechanics and physics the word was extended to any closed path, such as that of an electron round a nucleus.^[2][4] The figurative sense “sphere of activity or influence” is in the modern dictionaries.^[4][11] Eminescu wrote of eyes swimming in their orbite, and CADE quotes the phrase ochii îi ieșeau din orbite “his eyes were popping out of their sockets”.^[11][12]

Timeline

• 1804–1808 – first record, in Șincai's manuscript translation.^[2]
• 1870 – Costinescu gives the astronomical and anatomical senses.^[9]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it “planetary orbit” and “eye socket”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An orbit: the closed curved path of a body moving round another, as of a planet, a satellite or an electron;^[4][2] orbită aparentă “apparent orbit”, the path a star seems to follow on the sky.^[4][2]
2. The eye socket, either of the two bony hollows of the skull that hold the eyes.^[4][1]
3. (figurative) A sphere of action or influence.^[4][13]

Related words

• orbital
• Latin orbis

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 221
3. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 907
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. 748
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. orbită
6. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. orbită
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. orbită
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 212
10. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 445
11. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 279
12. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. orbită
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. orbită