revoluție

Forms

revoluție f (plural revoluții)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French révolution, with Late Latin revolūtiō and German Revolution as further models, a neologism of about 1800.^[2][3][4][1] The dictionaries list the models in different orders: the DLR and MDA2 put Latin first.^[2][3][4] Tiktin adds Italian rivoluzione;^[5] Wiktionary names French, itself from Latin.^[5][1] The Latin noun is formed on revolvō (“to roll back”) and is Late Latin, used by Augustine for a revolving or a return.^[1][6] The older form revoluțiune follows the Latin stem in ⟨-ion-⟩.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and the DLR date the first record to 1800, in Molnar: Sparta „trebuia ori să fie neînvinsă, sau să aștepte revoluții” “had either to be unconquered or to expect revolutions”.^[5][2] MDA2 gives Leon Asachi's translation of Saint-Pierre, Bordeiul indienesc, 1821.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The political sense came first in Romanian, with records from 1800 on: the revolutions of Spain and Greece, the French Revolution, the revolution of 1848.^[2] In 1848 Negulici gave both the astronomical sense, the return of a star to its starting point, and the political one, an uprising.^[7] In popular speech it also meant a revolt, with forms such as rivuluție and răzvoluție.^[2][3] The figurative sense, a radical change in any field, gave revoluție industrială.^[4] The scientific senses name the motion of a body along a closed curve, a rotation about an axis (suprafață de revoluție) and in forestry the time from planting to felling.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1800 – the first record, in Molnar.^[5][2]
• 1821 – in Leon Asachi's translation of Saint-Pierre.^[3]
• 1848 – Negulici records the astronomical and the political senses.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A revolution: a fundamental change of a society's values, political institutions, social structure and leaders.^[4][3][1]
2. (popular) An uprising, a revolt.^[4][3]
3. (figurative) A radical change in a field, as in revoluție industrială, the replacement of manual production by machines.^[4]
4. (astronomy, physics) The periodic motion of a body along a closed curve;^[4][7] perioadă de revoluție: the time a body takes to complete its orbit.^[4][7]
5. (geometry, mechanics) The rotation of a body about a fixed axis; a full turn of a wheel.^[4][2]

Related words

• revoluționar
• revolta
• French révolution
• Latin revolvō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. revoluție
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 704
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. 1, 952
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. revolúție
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d 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. revoluție