recunoaște

Forms

recunoaște (third-person singular present recunoaște, past participle recunoscut, third-person subjunctive recunoască) 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian re- + cunoaște on the model of French reconnaître;^{[2][3][4][5][6]} DELR adds Latin recognōscō as a model.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Wiktionary calls it a calque of the French verb.^[1] cunoaște “to know” is inherited from Late Latin conōscere, a variant of cognōscō.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1794, in a calendar printed in Vienna.^[2][5] DELR lists the senses “to identify something known before; to admit, to confess;^[2] (military) to reconnoitre;^[2] (obsolete) to show gratitude”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The DA's quotations start with Heliade, MDA2's first record, and with the newspapers of the 1830s, where it means to know again a person or a face seen before.^[3][6] Negulici explains it in 1848 as to know again, to remember someone on seeing him, to declare, to approve, to be grateful.^[7]

From “to admit as true” came the political sense of recognising a government or a state, and the legal sense of acknowledging a natural child.^[4] The sense “to show gratitude” is now obsolete, but it survives in recunoștință “gratitude” (1821), formed after French reconnaissance, and recunoscător “grateful” (1831).^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1794 – first record, in a calendar printed in Vienna.^[2][5]
• 1821 – recunoștință “gratitude”.^[2]
• 1831 – recunoscător.^[2]
• 1836 – recunosc “I recognise” in a periodical.^[3]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To recognize a person or thing known before; to tell something apart by its features: L-am recunoscut după voce.^[4][1]
2. (reflexive) To find one's own features in someone else.^[4]
3. (transitive) To admit, acknowledge as existing, true or valid; to confess: A recunoscut că a greșit.^[4][1]
4. To value the merit of someone or something.^[4]
5. To recognise a state or government, or a new situation in international relations; to declare a natural child legitimate.^[4]
6. (military) To reconnoitre the ground and the enemy's positions.^[4][6]
7. (obsolete) To show gratitude to someone.^[4][2]

Word family

• recunoaștere
• recunoscător
• recunoștință
• nerecunoscător

Related words

• cunoaște
• French reconnaître

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 i j k 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. cunoaște
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. recunoaște
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 931
5. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. recunoaște
6. ^ 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, 672
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