regret

Forms

regret n (plural regrete)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French regret (“regret”), one of the French neologisms of the 19th century.^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} The French noun continues Old French regret (“lamentation, complaint”), a deverbal noun of regreter (“to lament”).^[1] The verb regreta was borrowed separately, from regretter.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 has regretŭ with the sense of sorrow for a thing one has lost or let slip, extended to a slight grief, and the plurals regreturi and regrete.^[9] MDA2 and DLR take their first quotation from the poet Macedonski, who wrote of cities that pass before his eyes and vanish „fără să-mi lase vreo urmă de regret” “without leaving me a trace of regret”.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is sorrow over the loss of a thing or a person, over a failure or over something one has done; by extension it became “remorse, repentance”.^[2][3] The locution cu regret or cu tot regretul “with (great) regret” is used as a polite formula: Caragiale has „Cu regret, amice, nu ești bun de noi!”.^[3][6] DLR names the older French loan repentir as a dated synonym.^[6] The plural regreturi of 1870 gave way to regrete.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 1870 – regretŭ in Costinescu's dictionary, with the plurals regreturi and regrete.^[9]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it with German Bedauern.^[10]
• 1893–1895 – Damé gives the plural regrete.^[11]
• 1939 – the edition of Macedonski's works from which MDA2 takes its first quotation.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. regret, sorrow caused by the loss of a thing or a person, by a failure or by something done rashly;^{[2][3][12][1]} Nu am niciun regret. “I have no regrets.”^{[2][3][12][1]}
2. (by extension) remorse, repentance.^[2][3]

Related words

• regreta
• regretabil
• French regret

Usage notes

Cu regret, cu tot regretul: with (much) regret, regretfully.^[3][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 937
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 681
4. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. regret
5. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. regret
6. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. regret
7. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. regreta
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1113
9. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 417
10. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 536
11. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. regret
12. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. regret
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 715