plasa

Forms

plasa (third-person singular present plasează, past participle plasat) first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French placer (“to place”), a neologism of the 19th century.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Șăineanu already gave the French verb as its model in 1929.^[6] The verb is formed from French place (“place, spot”) + -er.^[1][7] Graur puts it in the family of Latin platea, with the French noun and, through Italian piazza, Romanian piață.^[7]

Romanian took more of the same French family: plasament is placement, and deplasa is déplacer.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to 1868, in Ion Ionescu's book on the farming of Mehedinți county.^[3] The passage, quoted by DLRLC, speaks of investing money: few of the many freeholders put the savings of their work into buying land, „plasează economiile muncii lor în cumpărare de pămînt”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The financial sense came first, and the selling of goods followed it.^[3][8] Damé's dictionary of the 1890s still marks the verb as a neologism.^[9] Șăineanu in 1929 lists three senses: to find someone a post, to sell goods, and to lend money at interest.^[6]

The general sense "to put in a place" and the reflexive "to take a position, a stance" were added later, together with the use for a remark made at the right moment in a conversation.^[4][8] In ball games it means to send the ball to a chosen spot or player.^[4][10]

Timeline

• 1868 – the first record, “to invest (savings)”, in Ion Ionescu's book on Mehedinți.^[3][8]
• 1893–1895 – Damé lists a plasa as a neologism.^[9]
• 1929 – Șăineanu gives the senses “to find a post for”, “to sell” and “to lend at interest”.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To invest money or valuables; to allocate: Și-a plasat economiile în acțiuni.^[4][3]
2. (transitive) To sell goods or distribute them for money.^[4][11]
3. (transitive) To put in a remark at the right moment in a conversation.^[4][8]
4. (transitive and reflexive) To place or be placed somewhere; to situate.^[4][3]
5. (transitive) To find someone a job or a good situation.^[4][10]
6. (reflexive) To take up a position; to adopt a stance.^[4][5]
7. (transitive, sports) To send the ball to a chosen spot or player.^[4][3]

Word family

• plasament
• plasator

Related words

• deplasa
• piață

Usage notes

The verb is not related to the noun plasă “net”, of Slavonic origin, with which it shares the spelling of some forms.^[12][4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. plasa
3. ^ 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, 406
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 828
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. plasa
6. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 486
7. ^ a b c Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
8. ^ a b c d e Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 450
9. ^ a b Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État
10. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. plasa
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. plasa
12. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. plasă