profita

Forms

profita (third-person singular present profită, past participle profitat), 1st conjugation^[1] MDA2 records an old present profitez beside profit.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French profiter (“to profit”), as MDA2, DEX, MDN, the DLR and Wiktionary state.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DN adds borrowed from Italian profittare as a second source.^[6] The French verb is formed on profit with -er.^[1]

Negulici's dictionary of 1848 refers it to Latin prōficiō (“to make progress, be useful”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DLR quotes it from 1840 in the periodical Buletin, of surveyors who want to “profit” from the summer holiday to practise their trade.^[5] MDA2 gives as its first record Heliade-Rădulescu's translation of Byron's Don Juan (1847), where Zoe “had profited nicely from her time”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

From the first records it is used with de “of”: a profita de ocazie “to take the opportunity”.^[5][8] Șăineanu's dictionary of 1929 also has “to be of use” and a figurative “to make progress in a field of learning”.^[8] DEX adds a pejorative sense, to seek one's own gain in every situation without regard for others.^[3] MDA2 records a rare transitive use, “to bring someone profit”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1840 – a profita in the periodical Buletin.^[5]
• 1846 – a profita de “to take advantage of” in a periodical.^[5]
• 1847 – in Heliade-Rădulescu's Don Juan, MDA2's first record.^[2]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[7]
• 1862 – Pontbriant glosses a profita de prilej as “to seize the occasion”.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, with de) To profit, benefit; to take the opportunity to gain something or do something: A profitat de vremea bună ca să repare acoperișul.^[3][2][1]
2. (pejorative) To seek one's own gain in every situation, without regard for others; to exploit others.^[3][6]
3. (rare, transitive) To bring someone profit.^[2]

Related words

• profit

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 562
3. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 882
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. profita
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. profita
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. profita
7. ^ 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, p. s.v. profitare
8. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 517
9. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 589