reprezentant

Forms

reprezentant m (plural reprezentanți, feminine equivalent reprezentantă)^[1] An older form reprezentante, spelled representante, occurs in Barițiu: „prin representantele său Vasici” “through its representative Vasici”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French représentant (“representative”).^{[4][3][5][2][1]} Scriban also names Latin repraesentāns, the Latin present participle.^[6] In Romanian it goes with the verb reprezenta “to represent”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1796, in a document of Bălan's collection.^[5] MDA2 and the DLR have it first in 1829, in a report that Peel would again enter parliament as the member for the University of Oxford: the text adds the native word înfățișător in brackets to explain the new one.^[3][2] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 explains it as one who holds another's place in an assembly.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was a person who acts in the name of another, of a group or of a state, in parliament and in diplomacy.^[2][4] A document of 1835 already calls the metropolitan the representative of the boyar class.^[2] By the late 19th century it also meant an exponent of a school or a current: Gherea named the Schlegel brothers and Hoffmann as representatives of the German Romantic school.^[2] Șăineanu records the commercial agent of a firm and the member of a legislative assembly, and Scriban a legal sense, an heir by representation.^[9][6]

Timeline

• 1796 – the first record.^[5]
• 1829 – a member of parliament, glossed înfățișător.^[3][2]
• 1835 – the metropolitan as representative of the boyars.^[2]
• 1848 – Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person authorized to represent someone or something, to take someone's place or act in their name; a delegat: reprezentantul sindicatului.^[4][3]
2. A person who represents a state's interests in another state or at a diplomatic meeting.^[4]
3. An exponent of a school, a current or a class: un reprezentant al simbolismului.^[4][2]
4. (commerce) An agent who does business for a firm.^[9][6]

Related words

• reprezenta
• reprezentanță
• reprezentator

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. reprezentant
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, 693
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 945
5. ^ 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. reprezentant
6. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1118
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. reprezentant
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. reprezentant
9. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 545