rezistent

Forms

rezistent m or n (feminine singular rezistentă, masculine plural rezistenți, feminine/neuter plural rezistente)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French résistant, with Italian resistente named as a second model by DEX and the neologism dictionaries.^{[2][3][4][1][5][6]} Scriban compares the Latin present participle resistens beside the French word.^[7] It belongs with rezista and rezistență.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and the DLR date the first record to 1857, in A. Marin's translation of Pouillet's notions of physics, where the hardest bodies are called „cei mai rezistenți” “the most resistant”.^[6][5] The sense was physical: a body that withstands the action of another body or force without changing.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From materials and bodies the adjective spread to living beings: a person or an organism that bears fatigue, illness or hardship well.^[5][2] A rarer sense, said of people, is “opposing, unwilling”.^[5][6] In medicine it is said of microbes that no longer respond to an antibiotic.^[3] As a noun it names a member of the Resistance in the Second World War and, since the 1990s, an opponent of the communist regime.^[3][8] Older variants were rezistant and rezistinte.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 1857 – rezistenți of hard bodies, in Marin's translation of Pouillet's physics.^[6][5]
• 1939 – Scriban defines it as “that resists, strong” and gives mediu rezistent as a term of physics.^[7]
• 1992 – the noun rezistent “opponent of a totalitarian regime” in the press.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of things, durable, lasting; of materials, not easily altered by physical or chemical agents.^[2][9]
2. Of beings, hardy: able to bear illness, fatigue or distress well; tough, steadfast.^[2][6]
3. Of microbes, no longer affected by an antibiotic.^[3][4]
4. (rare) Of people, opposing someone or something.^[6][5]

Noun

1. A member of the Resistance in the Second World War; an opponent of a totalitarian regime.^[4][8]

Related words

• rezista
• rezistență
• French résistant

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 953
3. ^ a b c d e Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
4. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
5. ^ 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. rezistent
6. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 706
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1126
8. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. rezistent
9. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional