profund

Forms

profund m or n (feminine singular profundă, masculine plural profunzi, feminine/neuter plural profunde)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin profundus (“deep”), with French profond as a second model: MDA2, the DLR, DEX, MDN and Tiktin name both, while Scriban and DN give the Latin word and DN compares Italian profondo too.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][1]}

The Latin adjective is made of prō- and fundus (“bottom”).^[9][1] The same Latin noun survives in Romanian as the inherited fund, to which the adjective is thus related.^[10][7] The Latin adjective lives on in the other Romance languages, as in Old French parfont, remade under Latin influence as the modern French form, and Catalan pregon.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1780, in the Elementa linguae daco-romanae.^[6] MDA2 and the DLR cite a calendar of 1794, also quoted by Tiktin: „în desrânduiala cea mai profundă a tristeței” “in the deepest disorder of sadness”, where it already describes the intensity of a feeling.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

Negulici's dictionary of neologisms explained it in 1848 by the native adânc “deep”, which it has partly replaced in the literary language.^[13] Costinescu in 1870 gave the physical sense of a well or a pond whose bottom is far from the surface and the figurative senses of knowledge hard to reach, of a perceptive person and of an extreme sleep, respect or silence.^[14] Bolintineanu used it of a deep gulf.^[15] In DEX 2009 the order of the senses is reversed: the perceptive person and the intensity of feelings come first, and the physical depth last.^[4]

Timeline

• 1780 – in the Elementa linguae daco-romanae, the first record.^[6]
• 1794 – of sadness, in a calendar.^[2][3][6]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[13]
• 1870 – in Costinescu's dictionary, with physical and figurative senses.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of people: perceptive, thinking things through; of thoughts and works: showing depth and seriousness; profound.^[4][1]
2. Of feelings and states: strong, intense; of a bow: made by bending low, hence respectful.^[4][2]
3. Of eyes or a look: suggesting depth of feeling.^[4]
4. Of a voice or sound: low, grave.^[4]
5. Of changes and processes: fundamental, radical.^[4]
6. Of water, cavities and hollows: deep, with the bottom far below the surface.^[4][1]

Word family

• profunzime

Related words

• fund
• Latin profundus

Usage notes

An older form profond, after French, is recorded by Tiktin and MDA2.^[6][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 563
3. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. profund
4. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 882
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. profund
6. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. profund
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1060
8. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. profund
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 48
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6772
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
13. ^ 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. profund
14. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 366
15. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 594