presupunere

Forms

presupunere f (plural presupuneri)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian presupune + -re: the long infinitive of the verb, used as a noun.^[2][3][1][4] The verb is made of pre- and supune on the model of French présupposer.^[5] The DLR names Latin praesuppōnō beside the French verb as the model,^[6] and Ciorănescu describes the verb as the French one fitted to the conjugation of the Romanian verb.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and the DLR take the first record from A. Lăzărescu's drama Sanuto (1851): „Atunci... nu avea decît presupuneri, pe cînd acum are dovezi” “Then he had only suppositions, whereas now he has proof”.^[2][3] There the word already names what is supposed, not only the act of supposing.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The noun covers both the act of supposing and the thing supposed, a hypothesis (ipoteză) or supoziție.^[5][8] The bilingual dictionaries of the 19th century render it with French présupposition, supposition and présomption and German Voraussetzung, Annahme.^[9][10][11] MDA2 also records a sense “implication”, matching the verb's sense “to imply”, and lists older native synonyms: the obsolete prepus and the regional prepunere.^[2]

Timeline

• 1823 – the verb presupune in Bobb's dictionary, its first record.^[12]
• 1851 – presupuneri “suppositions” in A. Lăzărescu's Sanuto, the first record of the noun.^[2][3]
• 1862 – glossed “présupposition, supposition” in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[9]
• 1870 – spelled presuppunere in Costinescu's vocabulary.^[13]
• 1886 – glossed German Voraussetzung, Annahme in Barcianu's dictionary.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of supposing: admitting, in advance or provisionally, that something is possible, real or true.^[5][2]
2. Something so admitted: a supposition, hypothesis or conjecture;^[5][14] Presupunerea mea s-a dovedit greșită.^[5][14]
3. (rare) implication: the fact that one thing presupposes another.^[2]

Related words

• presupune
• supune
• presupoziție

Usage notes

The plural is presupuneri, common in phrases such as a face presupuneri “to make guesses”.^[3][15]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 526
3. ^ 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. presupunere
4. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. presupunere
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 870
6. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. presupune
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. presupune
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1043
9. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 580
10. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État
11. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 504
12. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. presupune
13. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 349
14. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. presupunere
15. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 555