reacție

Forms

reacție f (plural reacții)^[1] Older forms are reacsie and reacțiune;^[2] reacțiune survives with specialised senses: the physical counterforce and political reaction.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French réaction, first recorded in 1832.^[3][2][1][4] The French word comes from Medieval Latin reactio, formed from re- and āctiō.^[3] Romanian thus has it beside acțiune, to whose family DELR assigns it.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is in the newspaper Albina românească in 1832.^[3] MDA2 dates it from Episcupescu's medical handbook of 1846.^[2] In 1848 Negulici defined it as the resistance of a struck body to the body that strikes it and, figuratively, as the revenge of the oppressed.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word covered a response to an action, a counterforce in physics and, in the form reacțiune, the organised resistance to political and social change.^[3][5] The political sense gave the adjective reacționar “reactionary” in 1848, borrowed from French réactionnaire.^[3]

Chemistry, biology and psychology took the word as a technical term: the transformation of substances, the response of living matter to a stimulus, a response of the mind.^[3][4] The verb reacționa, first recorded in 1853, was formed in Romanian on reacție and reacțiune to render French réagir.^[3] Later technical uses include reacție în lanț “chain reaction” and avion cu reacție “jet aircraft”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1832 – first record, in Albina românească.^[3]
• 1846 – in Episcupescu's medical handbook, MDA2's first record.^[2]
• 1848 – defined in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms;^[5] reacționar “reactionary” recorded.^[5][3]
• 1853 – the verb reacționa.^[3]
• 1948 – the adjective reacțional.^[3]
• 1957 – reactor “reactor”, from French réacteur.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A reaction, a response to something; an attitude shown in answer to an act or event.^[4][2]
2. (psychology) Any response of a mental system to an outside stimulus.^[4]
3. (biology) The direct response of living matter to a stimulus.^[2][6]
4. (chemistry) A process in which substances are transformed into new ones, as in reacție în lanț “chain reaction”.^[4][2]
5. (physics) A force equal and opposite to an action, also in the form reacțiune;^[4][2] avion cu reacție is a jet aircraft.^[4][2]
6. (politics; in the form reacțiune) Organised opposition to political and social progress.^[4][3]

Word family

• reacționa

Related words

• acțiune
• reacționar
• reactiv
• reactor

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 662
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. reacție
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. 924
5. ^ a b c d 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. reacție
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. reacție