relație

Forms

relație f (plural relații)^[1] The variant relațiune was common in the 19th century, and Stamati's dictionary has an old relăciune.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin relātiō, with French relation and German Relation as further models.^[4][3][2] The Wiktionary gives French alone, and Tiktin a learned Latin word also taken through other languages.^[1][5] The Latin noun, “a bringing back; report; relation”, is formed from referō with the suffix -tiō.^[6][1] The German and French words are borrowed from it.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a document of 1736; the sense “report” is attested from 1798.^[5] In 1813 Petru Maior writes „Am făcut relație excelenței tale” “I have made a report to Your Excellency”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant a report or account, a sense still alive in the 19th century: Hasdeu writes of the relațiunea of a Greek chronicler and Xenopol of the account of five Genoese.^[2] The plural relații “information” survives in a da relații “to give information”.^[4][3] The sense “connection, relationship” between things, people or states, already in Negulici's definition of 1848 as “the relation of one thing or person to another”, became the main one.^[9][4] In the plural it also means useful connections with influential people, and in the singular a love affair.^[3][4] Grammar, logic and mathematics use it as a term: complement circumstanțial de relație is an adverbial of respect.^[2][4] In the 1970s the language of transport took it for a route: pe relația Brașov–Predeal “on the Brașov–Predeal line”.^[10]

Timeline

• 1736 – first record, in a document.^[5]
• 1798 – in the sense “report”.^[5]
• 1813 – am făcut relație “I have made a report” in Petru Maior.^[2][3]
• 1848 – Negulici defines relație as the bearing of one thing or person on another.^[9]
• 1977 – relație “route” in the press.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A relation or connection between things, facts, ideas or processes; in logic, a connection between two or more terms.^[4][1]
2. (usually plural) Relationships between persons, peoples or states: relații diplomatice “diplomatic relations”.^[4][3]
3. (plural) useful connections with influential people.^[4][3]
4. A love affair.^[3]
5. (dated) an account or report;^[4][3] a da relații “to give information”.^[4][3]
6. (transport) a route served by a train, bus or flight.^[10]

Related words

• relata
• relativ
• Latin relātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. relație
3. ^ 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, 686
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. 940
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. reláție
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ 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. 345
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. relație