recompensă

Forms

recompensă f (plural recompense)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French récompense (“reward”), one of the French words of the 19th century.^[2][3][4][1] Scriban named Italian ricompensa beside the French word.^[5] The verb recompensa was borrowed separately, from récompenser, and is recorded from 1848.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is from 1830, in the sense of a reward.^[2] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 explains it by the Latin remuneratio and the Romanian răsplată “reward”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 gives repayment, compensation and indemnity, the phrase în recompensă “by way of compensation, in return” after French en récompense, and also an ironic “beating, punishment”.^[8] MDA2 still records that rare sense of punishment.^[2] In the classics it is a reward for merit: in Rebreanu a captain says that destroying a searchlight deserves a special reward.^[9] Socialist law added a specific sense, the sum due to an inventor or innovator who cedes the invention to the state.^[3][10] Vânător de recompense is a bounty hunter.^[1]

Timeline

• 1830 – first record, “reward”.^[2]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms; the verb recompensa is first recorded the same year.^[7][2]
• 1870 – “compensation, indemnity” and în recompensă, in Costinescu.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A reward for a service or merit; a bonus or gratuity.^[3][1]
2. (rare) compensation, indemnity.^[3]
3. The sum due to an inventor or innovator who cedes an invention to the state.^[3]
4. (rare) Punishment.^[2]

Related words

• recompensa
• compensa
• răsplată

Usage notes

MDA2 records the obsolete variants recompensie, recompenzie and recompensiune.^[2] A reward offered for the capture of a wanted person gives vânător de recompense “bounty hunter”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 670
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 929
4. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. recompensă
5. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1106
6. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. recompensa
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. 342
8. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 407
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 701
10. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. recompensă