reduce

Forms

reduce (third-person singular present reduce, past participle redus), 3rd conjugation^[1] The old variant răduce appears in Șincai's chronicle: „să-i răduceți la aceeași statornicie” “bring them back to the same steadfastness”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin redūcō (“to lead back”), with French réduire as a second model.^[4][3][2][1] Ciorănescu derives it from the French verb fitted to the conjugation of duce, and Tiktin also compares German reduzieren.^[5][6] The French word is the Latin verb, borrowed about 1175 and remodelled after conduire.^[7] It is formed from Latin re- + dūcō (“to lead”).^[7] The inherited arăduce, from the same Latin verb, is its doublet.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Eustratie's Pravila of 1632, with the old sense “to lead back”.^[6] This sense was still alive in Șincai's chronicle at the start of the 19th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “to bring back” is now obsolete.^[3][2] The modern senses came with the French and Latin model in the 19th century: Negulici's dictionary of 1848 gives “to force, to subdue”, “to convert measures and coins”, “to make smaller” and “to cut down a number”.^[8] Pontbriant adds the surgical sense “to set a dislocated bone”.^[9] The newspapers of the 1840s use redus of reduced amounts, and Eminescu wrote of a problem reduced to nothing.^[2] In chemistry it means to remove oxygen from a compound, and in mathematics to simplify a fraction.^[4] Recent colloquial usage has a reduce “to dismiss someone in a staff cut”.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 1632 – the first record, in Eustratie's Pravila.^[6]
• early 19th century – răduce “bring back” in Șincai's chronicle.^[2]
• 1848 – Negulici's dictionary gives the modern senses.^[8]
• 1997 – “to lay off” in the press.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To reduce, lessen, decrease in size, amount or intensity; also, to reproduce on a smaller scale, and in mathematics to simplify a fraction.^[4][3]
2. To restrict, limit;^[4][3] a reduce pe cineva la tăcere “to silence someone”.^[4][3]
3. To bring someone or something down to a worse or lower state.^[4]
4. (chemistry) To remove oxygen from a compound.^[4]
5. (colloquial) To lay off in a staff cut.^[10][11]
6. (obsolete) To conquer, subjugate; to bring back.^[4][3]

Word family

• reducere
• redus

Related words

• arăduce
• duce

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. reduce
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 674
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. 933
5. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. reduce
6. ^ 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. reduce
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. réduire
8. ^ 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. s.v. reduce
9. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 616
10. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. reduce
11. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. reduce