prepara

Forms

prepara (third-person singular present prepară, past participle preparat, third-person subjunctive prepare), first conjugation^[1] An old present preparez is recorded beside prepar.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French préparer (“to prepare”), one of the French neologisms of the 19th century.^[3][2][4][1] DEX, Marcu and Maneca, Marcu and Wiktionary name borrowed from Latin praeparō (“to make ready beforehand”) as a second source, an etymology of several sources.^[5][6][7][1] The French verb was itself borrowed from Latin in 1314.^[8] The Latin verb is formed from prae- (“before”) and parō (“to prepare”).^[8][9][1]

Of its family, preparandie “teachers' college” in Transylvania is from Latin praeparanda, and preparativ and preparație are from French.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first quotation in the DLR is from the newspaper Curierul românesc of 1846, where post horses are made ready in advance.^[4] MDA2 dates the verb to 1847, to Heliade's translation of Byron's Don Juan, where it is used of a dish prepared with care.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb had two lines of meaning: to make something ready beforehand, and to cook food or drink.^[4][2] Negulici listed it among the neologisms in 1848.^[4] Later senses are to prepare a person for an examination or an activity (and specifically to tutor a pupil), to learn a lesson thoroughly, to break news to someone gently, and the technical senses of processing raw materials and of making chemical or pharmaceutical products; rarely, it meant to stuff an animal.^[2][5] The reflexive a se prepara can mean “to be about to”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1846 – the first record, in Curierul românesc.^[4]
• 1847 – of cooking, in Heliade's Don Juan.^[2][4]
• 1848 – listed by Negulici.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To prepare something beforehand, to make ready for a later action or process;^[1] (reflexive) to be about to.^[5][2][1]
2. To prepare oneself or someone for an examination or an activity; to study thoroughly; specifically, to tutor.^[5][2]
3. To forewarn someone of an event, to break news gently.^[5][2]
4. To cook food or make a drink: A preparat o supă de legume. “She made a vegetable soup.”^[5][2][1]
5. To process raw materials into a new product; to make chemical or pharmaceutical preparations.^[2]

Word family

• preparare

Related words

• preparație
• preparat
• preparativ
• preparator
• preparandie

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 521
3. ^ 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. prepara
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. prepara
5. ^ 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. 868
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. prepara
7. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. prepara
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press