recunoaștere

Forms

recunoaștere f (plural recunoașteri)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian recunoaște + -re: the long infinitive of the verb, used as a noun of action.^[2][3][4][1] The verb recunoaște was itself made from cunoaște with the prefix re-, on the model of French reconnaître.^[2][5] The latter goes back to Latin cognōscō (“to get to know”), through a Late Latin variant conōscō.^[1][6]

The military sense “reconnaissance” is a semantic loan from French reconnaissance.^[1] The French noun is formed on the present-participle stem of that verb with the suffix -ance.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and Tiktin date the first record to 1834, in the newspaper Curierul românesc.^[2][3] The passage, quoted by the DLR, reports that Athens had been declared the capital of Greece and that „această recunoaștere a dat loc unei sărbători pompoase” “this recognition gave occasion to a solemn celebration”: the sense is the formal acknowledgement of something as valid.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The first senses were formal and political: in 1836 the Gazeta de Transilvania wrote of the “recognition and confirmation” of the Organic Regulation.^[7] From the verb's other meanings the noun also took the sense of identifying someone or something known before; the phrase semn de recunoaștere “mark of recognition” occurs in Maiorescu.^[7][2]

Early 20th-century dictionaries add specialised uses: the scouting of the enemy's positions before a battle, the formal declaration that one is the father of a child, a written acknowledgement of a sum received, and the grant of political rights to Romanians of foreign nationality.^[8][9] In law and diplomacy the word now also names the acceptance by one state of a newly created situation, such as a new state or government.^[2][10] The psychological sense, the act of memory by which something perceived before is known again, heads the senses in MDA2 and the DLR.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1834 – first record, in Curierul românesc, of the recognition of Athens as the Greek capital.^[2][3][7]
• 1836 – the recognition of the Organic Regulation, in the Gazeta de Transilvania.^[7]
• 1929 – Șăineanu lists the military sense and the acknowledgement of a sum received.^[9]
• 1939 – Scriban records the legal recognition of a natural child.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of recognizing someone or something known before; identification, also of something not known before by its features.^[4][2]
2. Acknowledgement of something as true, existing or valid; also appreciation, esteem: recunoașterea meritelor “the recognition of merits”.^[2][10]
3. (law, diplomacy) The act by which a state accepts, expressly or tacitly, a new state, government or situation in international relations.^[2][10]
4. (law) The act by which a child born outside marriage receives, by the parent's declaration or a court ruling, the legal status of a child born in marriage.^[2][11]
5. (military) reconnaissance: the scouting of the enemy's positions and of the ground before a fight.^[8][1]

Related words

• recunoștință

Usage notes

Semn de recunoaștere is a distinctive mark by which something or someone is identified.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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, 672
3. ^ 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. recunoáștere
4. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 931
5. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. recunoáște
6. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 573
7. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. recunoaștere
8. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1108
9. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 540
10. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 704
11. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. recunoaștere