publicitate

Forms

publicitate f (uncountable)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French publicité, as all the dictionaries say.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Laurian and Massim also name Italian publicità beside the French word.^[6] The French word is from Medieval Latin pūblicitātem, formed on pūblicus (“public”) with -tās.^[1] In Romanian it sits beside public, and Scriban derives it from that word as well as from French.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The MDA2 dates the first record to 1848, in a periodical where it means the press, the body of journalism: „Cu publicitatea începură a se încărca bărbați al căror talent și erudiție sunt cunoscute” “men whose talent and learning are known began to take up journalism”.^[3][4] Negulici's dictionary of the same year glosses it “publishing in print”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The first senses, now obsolete, were the act of publishing and the press itself;^[4][3] Barițiu wrote of the acts of the Blaj assembly reaching Bucharest “by way of publicity”, and organ de publicitate was a periodical.^[4][3] From the 1860s the word also meant the public character of what is not kept secret, as in a calendar of 1861 that names “liberty, publicity” as the levers of the modern world, and in the law the principle that trials are held in public.^[4][3][6] Șăineanu's dictionary of 1929 adds announcements in newspapers, posters and leaflets, and mica publicitate became the small-advertisements column of a newspaper.^[9][10] Today the main sense is advertising: the means of making a product or firm known to buyers.^[5][3]

Timeline

• 1848 – first record, “the press, journalism”, in a periodical;^[3][8] Negulici's dictionary glosses it “publishing in print”.^[3][8]
• 1861 – the sense “publicity, openness” in a calendar.^[4]
• 1862 – Pontbriant glosses it French publicité, notoriété.^[11]
• 1870 – Costinescu gives both “publishing in print” and “the quality of being known to all”.^[12]
• 1929 – Șăineanu adds announcements in newspapers and posters.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. publicity: making something known to the public; spreading information among the public; the public character of something.^[2][3]
2. advertising: the means of making a product, service or firm known to buyers: Firma a cheltuit mult pe publicitate.^[5][3][1]
3. mica publicitate: the classified advertisements section of a newspaper;^[2] agenție de publicitate: an advertising agency.^[2]
4. a da publicității: to publish, make public.^[2]

Related words

• public
• publica

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 894
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, 589
4. ^ 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. publicitate
5. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. publicitate
6. ^ a b Laurian, A. T.; Massim, I. C. (1871–1876), Dictionariulu limbei romane, 2 vols., Bucuresci: Noua Typographia a Laboratoriloru Romani, p. s.v. publicitate
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1072
8. ^ a b c 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. 339
9. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 523
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 617
11. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 595
12. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 377