pact

Forms

pact n (plural pacte)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French pacte, with Latin pactum and German Pakt as further models, as DEX, the DLR, MDA2 and DILF give it.^[2][3][4][5] MDN names French and Latin, Scriban Latin alone, and Wiktionary French, from Latin.^[6][7][1] The French word was borrowed from Latin in 1304–1305, and the German one entered chancery language in the mid-15th century.^[8][9] The Latin word, meaning “agreement, compact”, is the noun use of the past participle of pacīscor (“to make an agreement”), and belongs with pāx (“peace”) and pangō (“to fix, drive in”).^[10][8][9] Wiktionary takes the root back to Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fix, settle”).^[1] Graur groups the word with others of the same Latin family that reached Romanian: pace, pagină, păgân, compact and împinge.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms of 1848, which glosses it as an accord, convention, agreement.^[4][12] The DLR's first quotation is from Bolliac, who calls for taking the lead in the “pactul național”, the national pact for the unity of the Romanians.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is a written agreement between two parties, and by extension a contract.^[3][4] Law gave the phrases pact fundamental, a state's constitution, which Maiorescu used in his parliamentary speeches, pact constituțional, the citizens' agreement to respect the constitution, and pact succesoral, an agreement on rights of inheritance.^[3][4] Writers used it figuratively, as in Sadoveanu's pact with the demons.^[3] In the 20th century the sense of a solemn international treaty between states came to the fore, as in pact de neagresiune “non-aggression pact” and the North Atlantic pact.^[3][2] The old plural pacturi, recorded by Barcianu and Damé, gave way to pacte.^[3][13][14]

Timeline

• 1848 – first record, in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[4][12]
• 1870 – pactŭ “accord, convention”, with pact de familie “family pact”, in Costinescu's dictionary.^[15]
• 1886 – Barcianu gives the plural pacturi.^[13]
• 1954 – the North Atlantic pact, in Scînteia.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A solemn international treaty between states, made above all to keep the pace or to bind the signatories in close cooperation: pact de neagresiune “non-aggression pact”.^[2][3]
2. A written agreement between two parties; a convention; by extension, a contract.^[2][4]
3. (law) In phrases: pact fundamental a state's constitution (rare), pact succesoral an agreement by which one party gives up part of its rights of inheritance to the other.^[4][3]

Related words

• pace
• compact
• Latin pactum

Usage notes

The plural is pacte; the older pacturi is now obsolete.^[3][2] A separate regional word pact (also paht), plural pacturi, means “lease, rent of land” in Bukovina and the Banat; it is borrowed from German Pacht and recorded in the linguistic atlas of 1930–1938.^[3][4][16]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 761
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pact
4. ^ 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, 244
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. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 921
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic
14. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État
15. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci
16. ^ Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual