responsabil

Forms

responsabil m (feminine singular responsabilă, masculine plural responsabili, feminine plural responsabile)^[1] Regional forms are răsponsabil, recorded in the Ialomița valley, and răspunzăbil, reshaped after răspunde.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French responsable (“answerable, liable”), a 19th-century neologism.^{[1][3][2][4][5]} Scriban also names Italian responsabile beside the French word.^[6] The French word is a learned formation from Latin responsum (“answer”), the supine of respondeō (“to answer; to stand surety”), first recorded as a noun in 1284 and as an adjective in 1304.^[7][6] The same Latin verb gave the inherited răspunde.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and the DLR date the first record to 1847, in Ion Ionescu de la Brad's book on the model farm and agricultural institute of Moldavia, where each person is said to be responsible for the branch of the economy entrusted to him.^[3][2] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms listed it the next year, defined as one who has to answer for something.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The adjective, “bearing the responsibility for something”, came first, and redactor responsabil “editor in charge” is quoted from a newspaper of 1858.^[2] The noun for a person put in charge of a function or task, a head, is quoted from the 1950s on.^[2][1] Damé referred it to the native răspunzător, and Barcianu in 1886 gave only the adjective.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 1847 – first record, in Ion Ionescu de la Brad.^[3][2]
• 1848 – listed in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[9]
• 1858 – redactor responsabil “editor in charge” in a newspaper.^[2]
• 1954 – the noun “person in charge”: o responsabilă de vagon.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. responsible, answerable: bearing the responsibility for something; also used as a noun for such a person.^[1][3]

Noun

1. A person put in charge of a function or a task; a head, person in charge: responsabilul cantinei “the canteen manager”.^[1][2]

Related words

• răspunde
• răspunzător
• responsabilitate
• iresponsabil
• French responsable

References

1. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 947
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. responsabil
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, 696
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. responsabil
5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1120
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ 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. răspunde
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. s.v. responsabil
10. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. responsabil
11. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 546