recupera

Forms

recupera (third-person singular present recuperează, past participle recuperat), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French récupérer, with Latin recuperāre as a second source, a multiple etymology given by DEX, MDA2, the DLR and MDN;^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary takes it from French, which had it from Latin.^[1]

The French verb is a learned borrowing of the late 13th century from the Latin verb, “to get back, regain”, whose inherited French outcome is recouvrer.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Antonescu's dictionary of 1875 glosses it with French recouvrer and récupérer.^[7] MDA2 and the DLR date it from Alexi's dictionary of 1906.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The DLR's quotations show the first sense, “to get back”, in Iorga, of a town recovered by the Christians, and in Camil Petrescu.^[4] In the press of 1949 and 1954 it is used of making up lost time and of winning back a loss.^[4] MDA2 and DEX add the technical sense of reusing waste material or energy that would otherwise be lost.^[3][2] MDN also gives the intransitive “to regain one's capacity for work”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1875 – in Antonescu's dictionary.^[7]
• 1906 – in Alexi's dictionary, MDA2's first record.^[3][4]
• 1949 – used of making up a delay.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To recover, to get back, to regain.^[2][8]
2. To reuse, wholly or partly, waste materials or energy that would otherwise be lost.^[2][3]
3. To make up for days or hours of work lost for some reason.^[5][4]
4. (intransitive) To regain one's capacity for work; to recuperate.^[5]

Related words

• Latin recuperō
• French récupérer

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 931
3. ^ 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
4. ^ 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. recupera
5. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. recupera
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 260
8. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. recupera