origine

Forms

origine f (plural origini)^[1] A variant origină exists beside origine;^[2][3][4] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 enters the word as „Origine, Origină”.^[2][3][4] Tiktin and MDA2 also record the obsolete forms orighine and origin.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin orīgō (“beginning, source, descent”);^[2][6][7] DEX, MDA2 and MDN give a double source, adding French origine.^[2][6][7] Tiktin names the New Latin word alone, and Wiktionary French alone.^[5][1] The Latin noun is formed on orior (“to rise, be born”) with the suffix -īgō.^[8][1] The French word is a learned borrowing from Latin, recorded from 1470; it replaced the inherited Old French orine.^[9][10] The same Latin verb gave Romanian orient, through its present participle.^[11][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1829.^[5] MDA2's first record is Vasile Episcupescu's Oglinda înțelepciunii, which its bibliography dates 1843.^[6] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 defines it as the beginning or cause of a thing, the lineage of a family and the etymology of a word.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The senses Negulici gave in 1848, beginning, descent and the etymology of a word, are still the main ones.^[12][2] The adjectival phrase de origine means “of a given provenance, by nature” and “by birth, by nationality”: de origine română.^[2][6] Mathematics took it for the fixed point from which coordinates are measured, and technical language for the zero point of a scale.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1829 – first record.^[5]
• 1843 – in Episcupescu's Oglinda înțelepciunii.^[6]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[12]
• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary gives origine and origină.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The starting point of a thing or a phenomenon; beginning, source, obârșie.^[2][6]
2. Belonging by birth to a family, a social group or a nation; descent: de origine “by birth”.^[2][6]
3. The etymology of a word.^[2][7]
4. (mathematics) The origin: the point from which the coordinates of the other points are measured;^[2] (technology) the zero point of a scale.^[2]

Related words

• original
• orient
• Latin orīgō

Usage notes

Wiktionary lists origini also as the plural of the variant origină, which DEX enters under origine.^[1][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 751
3. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 911
4. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 217
5. ^ 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. origine
6. ^ 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, 225
7. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
11. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
12. ^ a b c 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, p. 298