presă

Forms

presă f (plural prese)^[1] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 writes it pressă.^[2] MDA2 records the regional variants pres and preș, with the plural preșuri.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French presse, a 19th-century neologism.^{[4][5][3][6][1][7]} The neologism dictionary of Marcu and Maneca adds Italian pressa as a second model.^[8] The French noun is formed on the verb presser (“to press”), from Latin pressō, an intensive of premō (“to press”).^[9][10] The Romanian verb presa was borrowed separately, from the French verb.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1851.^[6] MDA2's first quotation is from Bălcescu, quoted by Ion Ghica: he asked for a press to print Romanian proclamations.^[3][7] The newspapers of the 1850s already use the sense “the newspapers”: Românul of 1857 writes of the English press.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Two senses came in together with the French word: the printing press, and the press as the body of newspapers and periodicals.^[7][2] Costinescu in 1870 explained the machine first, and then libertatea pressei “freedom of the press” and pressă periodică “periodical press”.^[2] The machine sense widened to any press for working materials, such as a hydraulic press or an oil press.^[4][9] From the newspapers the word came to mean journalism as a profession and, collectively, the journalists themselves.^[4][3] Ciorănescu records a slang sense “police”, with the derivative presar “policeman”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1851 – first record.^[6]
• 1857 – presa engleză “the English press” in Românul.^[7]
• 1870 – pressă in Costinescu's dictionary: the machine, the printing house and the newspapers.^[2]
• 1939 – Scriban adds the sense “the journalists”.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A press: a device or machine for pressing a material or an object; also a teasc.^[4][11]
2. A simple printing press that prints by pressing paper on inked type.^[4][3]
3. The press: all the daily and periodical publications, through which the public is informed;^[4][3][1] presa locală “the local press”.^[4][3][1]
4. journalism, the profession of a journalist; collectively, the journalists.^[4][3]
5. (slang) The police.^[5]

Related words

• French presse

Usage notes

A avea presă bună (or proastă): to have a good (or bad) press, a good or bad reputation;^[4][3] a pune sub presă: to send to print.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 348
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 523
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 869
5. ^ a b c d 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. presă
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. présă
7. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. presă
8. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. presă
9. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1041
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. presser
11. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. presă