pașaport

Forms

pașaport n (plural pașapoarte)^[1] Ianache Văcărescu's history of the Ottoman emperors has pașoport: „Mi se dete un pașoport” “a passport was given to me”.^[2][3] A document of 1815 has pașport with the old plural in -uri: „Pașporturile celor ce vor trece peste hotar” “the passports of those who will cross the border”.^[2] A document of 1811 has pasaport, and Kogălniceanu and Costache Negruzzi have pasport.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian passaporto (“passport”), through several intermediaries: the dictionaries also name Modern Greek πασσαπόρτι (passapórti), French passeport and Russian пашпорт (pašport) or паспорт (pasport).^[3][2][5] DEX 2009 names the Italian, French and Russian words,^[6][7] Scriban the Russian word, from the French one.^[8]

The Italian word is a compound of passa (“passes”) and porto (“port”),^[1] and the French one of passer (“to pass”) and port.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a document of 1761.^[5] MDA2's first record is Ianache Văcărescu's history of the Ottoman emperors, where the author is given a passport.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the early 19th century the word named a travel permit issued by the authorities, as in a document of 1811 asking for a pasaport to go to Transylvania, and in 1834 travellers arriving at the quarantine had to show it.^[2] Scriban still records a popular sense of an identity and free-movement card inside the country.^[8] A dated sense was the clearance certificate of a merchant ship, proving that its dues were paid.^[3] The familiar phrase a da cuiva pașaportul “to give someone his passport” means to send someone away, and by extension to dismiss him from a job.^[6][3] In publishing it also names the file with all the papers needed to print a book.^[6]

In Bulgarian, BER says that the form пашапорт used by Rakovski may come from Romanian or from Turkish.^[10]

Timeline

• 1761 – the first record, in a document.^[5]
• 1777 – recorded as a travel passport.^[5]
• 1811 – pasaport in a document.^[2]
• 1815 – pașporturile in a document printed in the Uricariul.^[2]
• 1818 – pașaport dă drum “passport for the road”.^[2]
• 1830 – pasuporturi in a newspaper.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A passport: an official document that lets a citizen travel abroad and serves there as proof of identity; synonyms pas, pașuș.^[6][3][1]
2. (dated) A certificate of a merchant ship showing that its dues are paid and that it may leave port.^[3]
3. The file of all the documents needed to publish a book.^[6][3]
4. (colloquial) The warranty card of an appliance, stamped with the date of sale.^[11]

Related words

• pasager
• pasaj
• pașuș
• Italian passaporto
• French passeport

Usage notes

A da (cuiva) pașaportul means to get rid of someone, and also to fire him.^[6] The plural is pașapoarte; old texts also have pașporturi.^[6][2] In Transylvania the regional word pașuș was used, from Hungarian.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pașaport
3. ^ 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, 281
4. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
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. pașaport
6. ^ 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. 781
7. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
8. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 941
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
10. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 5, 84
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional