preocupa

Forms

preocupa (third-person singular present preocupă, past participle preocupat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French préoccuper, and DEX and MDN also name borrowed from Latin praeoccupō.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Pontbriant in 1862 analysed it as pre- and the Latin verb for “to occupy”.^[6]

The French verb was borrowed in the 13th century from the Latin verb, meaning “to seize beforehand, anticipate”, formed with prae- (“before”) on occupō (“to seize, occupy”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is in I. Golescu's Condica, a manuscript dictionary of about 1832.^[3] The DLR cites it for an old sense “to draw someone's attention; to win someone over”, which a newspaper of 1838 also uses.^[4] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 gives “to be absorbed in one's mind by something”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The main sense, of an idea that holds the mind, is in Heliade, Filimon and Eminescu: „O vorbă, un vis o preocupa zile întregi” “a word, a dream would preoccupy her for whole days”.^[4] From it came “to worry, to trouble”, as in French, where “to cause worry” dates from 1864.^[4][7] A newspaper of 1846 already has the sense “to be the centre of attention, to arouse interest”, and the reflexive a se preocupa de “to concern oneself with” is in Călinescu.^[4] The old sense “to win over” has disappeared.^[3]

Timeline

• 13th century – French préoccuper borrowed from Latin.^[7]
• c. 1832 – preocupa in I. Golescu's Condica, the first Romanian record.^[3][4]
• 1838 – “to engage someone's attention” in a periodical.^[4]
• 1846 – “to be the focus of someone's attention”.^[4]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[8]
• 1862 – Pontbriant glosses it with French préoccuper.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive; of ideas, feelings) To take hold of someone's mind, to absorb, to obsess; by extension to trouble, to worry.^[2][3]
2. (reflexive) To be closely concerned with, to take care of someone or something: se preocupă de sănătatea lui “he looks after his health”.^[2][3]
3. (transitive) To arouse someone's interest, to engage the attention.^[2][3]

Word family

• preocupare
• preocupat

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 868
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, 521
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. preocupa
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
6. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 577
7. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ 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