resursă

Forms

resursă f (plural resurse)^[1] An old plural is resursuri: „mijloacelor (resursurilor)” “of the means (resources)”, in Ion Ionescu de la Brad (1847); an old variant is resurță.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French ressource.^[4][3][2][1] The French noun was refashioned after source from Old French resorce, the feminine of resors (“raised up, restored”), past participle of resourdre (“to rise again”), from Latin resurgō (“to rise again”).^[5] Scriban gives the same chain.^[6]

In the 2000s the plural took the sense “human resources”, replacing an older phrase for the personnel department, after English human resources and French ressources humaines.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to 1847, in Ion Ionescu de la Brad's work on the model farm and agricultural institute of Moldavia, where it means the means available for a task.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 1850s the newspapers used it for the means of a country, in the plural: Românul of 1858 writes that the country has resources and must organise itself militarily.^[2] Costinescu (1870) still explains ressursă as an expedient, a means of getting out of a difficulty.^[8] Șăineanu lists a way out of a difficulty, money, and the forces of a state.^[9]

Technical senses came later: resurse naturale and resurse de muncă in economics, and in aviation the number of flying hours allowed between two overhauls and the pull-out of a plane after a dive.^[4][10][11]

Timeline

• 1847 – the first record, in Ion Ionescu de la Brad.^[3][2]
• 1858 – resurse “means of a country” in the newspaper Românul.^[2]
• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary spells it ressursă.^[8]
• 2003 – resurse umane “human resources” in the press.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (mostly in the plural) A resource: a reserve or source of material or spiritual means that can be drawn on when needed: Țara are resurse mari de petrol.^[4][3]
2. resurse naturale: the natural resources of a country, its minerals, farmland, waters and forests.^[4]
3. resurse umane: human resources, the staff of a firm, and the department that handles them.^[7]
4. (aviation) The number of flying hours allowed for an aircraft between two overhauls.^[4][11]
5. (aviation) The pull-out of an aircraft from a dive back to level flight.^[10]

Related words

• sursă
• French ressource

References

1. ^ a b c 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. resursă
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, 697
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 947
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1121
7. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. resursă
8. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 436
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 547
10. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. resursă
11. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. resursă