radical

Forms

radical m or n (feminine singular radicală, masculine plural radicali, feminine/neuter plural radicale)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French radical, with German Radikal as a second source, as DEX and DLR give it;^[2][3][4] Tiktin names French alone.^[5] The French word, recorded from about 1465, is from Late Latin rādīcālis (“of the root, fundamental”), a learned borrowing of a word used by Augustine, from rādīx (“root”).^[6] German took its adjective from French in the 16th century.^[7] Scriban derived the Romanian word straight from Medieval Latin radicalis.^[8]

Graur lists it in the same Latin family as the inherited rădăcină “root”, ridiche “radish” and ridica “to raise”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1818, both as an adjective and as a noun meaning “root”.^[5] DLR's oldest quotation, from Gheorghe Asachi, speaks of a radical reform, in the sense “fundamental”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Negulici (1848) gives two senses: “of the root, from the root” and, as a noun, a supporter of a radical reform of the system of government.^[10] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 adds the chemists' term and the members of the opposition in the English parliament, and Barcianu (1886) has the plural radicali for the political party that seeks to change the constitution from the ground up.^[11][12] The medical sense, of a cure that heals completely, appears in DLR's quotations from Alecsandri.^[3]

In the old popular phrase a vorbi radical the word meant speaking in technical terms and new words that ordinary people did not know.^[8][13] The noun senses of mathematics (the root of a number and its symbol), chemistry and grammar are recorded by Scriban and survive in DEX.^[8][2]

Timeline

• c. 1818 – first record, as an adjective and as a noun “root”.^[5]
• 1848 – “of the root” and “supporter of radical reform” in Negulici.^[10]
• 1870 – the chemical and the parliamentary senses in Costinescu.^[11]
• 1886 – radicali, the political party, in Barcianu.^[12]
• 1939 – a vorbi radical “to speak in learned new words” in Scriban.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. fundamental, basic, essential; as an adverb, completely, from the ground up.^[2][4]
2. Of a treatment or remedy: curing completely.^[2]
3. Advocating deep reforms and decisive action; as a noun, a person with such views.^[2][4]

Noun

1. (mathematics) The root of a number; the symbol √ that indicates the extraction of a root.^[2]
2. (chemistry) A group of atoms that stays unchanged in a reaction and behaves as a single element; a radical.^[2]
3. (linguistics) The root of a word; rădăcină.^[2]

Related words

• rădăcină
• ridiche

Usage notes

Older dictionaries treat the grammatical and mathematical noun as neuter, with the plural radicale and rarely radicaluri;^{[8][14][4][2]} DEX 2009 makes it masculine, plural radicali.^{[8][14][4][2]}

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 906
3. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. radical
4. ^ 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, 616
5. ^ 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. radical
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 742
8. ^ a b c d e f Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1084
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
10. ^ 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. radical
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 395
12. ^ 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. 520
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 529
14. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 648