președinte

Forms

președinte m (plural președinți, feminine equivalent președintă)^[1] Older forms are prezident, taken more directly from the Latin and French word, and președente.^[2][3] MDA2 dates prezident to 1825, in the printed edition of Cantemir's description of Moldavia; it is now marked as obsolete.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French président and the Latin praesidēns, the present participle of praesideō (“to sit in front, preside”), refashioned in Romanian after ședea (“to sit”).^[6][3][2][1] Ciorănescu puts the Latin word first, borrowed in the 19th century, and the variant after the French.^[7] The ending follows the inherited words in -inte that continue Latin participles in -ēns, such as fierbinte and părinte, so that the Western prezident was given a Romanian shape.^[8] Wiktionary describes it as a formation from Romanian președea + -inte, modelled on the French and Latin words.^[1]

The Latin verb is a compound of prae- (“before”) and sedeō (“to sit”); in imperial Latin the participle was a title of provincial governors, and Christian Latin used it for the person presiding over a gathering.^[9] French borrowed the Latin word about 1296.^[9] The Romanian verb meaning “to sit” continues the same Latin verb.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1774, in a document he cites.^[2] MDA2 dates the word only to 1857, in a geography textbook by Laurian for the schools of Moldavia.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the person who presides over an assembly, a court or a society, the sense the 19th-century dictionaries give.^[11][12] MDA2 also records the governor of a province, the old Latin sense.^[3] The title of the head of state in a republic is now its most frequent use.^[6][13] The feminine președintă covers women in the same offices.^[1][6]

The older prezident survived beside it in the 19th century and is now obsolete.^[5][14] Recent compounds follow French models: președinte-director general copies French président-directeur général.^[15]

Timeline

• 1774 – first record, in a document.^[2]
• 1825 – the older form prezident in the edition of Cantemir's description of Moldavia.^[4]
• 1857 – președinte in Laurian's geography textbook.^[3]
• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary defines it as the person presiding over an assembly or a court.^[11]
• 1969 – președinte-director general “chairman and managing director” in the press.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A president or chairman: the person who heads a state body, an institution, an organisation or a society, or who presides over a meeting, a debate or a committee: președintele comisiei “the chairman of the committee”.^[6][3]
2. The official title of the head of state in some republics: Președintele României “the President of Romania”.^[6][1]
3. (historical) The governor of a province.^[3]

Word family

• președinție
• prezidențial

Related words

• prezident
• prezidiu
• ședea
• Latin praesidēns

Usage notes

The feminine is președintă (plural președinte); the masculine plural is președinți.^[6][1] Președinte de onoare is an honorary president, președinte de vârstă the oldest member who chairs an assembly until it elects its officers.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. președinte
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, 527
4. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 532
5. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 873
6. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 870
7. ^ 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. președinte
8. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 145
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 346
12. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 556
13. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. președinte
14. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1043
15. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. președinte