rezolva

Forms

rezolva (third-person singular present rezolvă, past participle rezolvat) 1st conjugation^[1] It was also written resolva, with an old present rezolvez and the variants rezolvi, rezolui and rezolia;^[2][3] Petru Maior has „I-au resolvit să fie acolo profesori” “they decided that they should be professors there”.^[2][3] Tiktin adds the old forms rezolvălui (in Șincai) and rezolvirui.^[4]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin resolvere, with German resolvieren as a second model.^[5][3][2] Tiktin also names Italian risolvere, which the DN compares, and the MDN gives Latin and German as the DEX does.^[4][6][7] The Latin verb, “to loosen, undo”, is formed from re- and solvō (“to loosen, unbind”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1791.^[4] In Petru Maior's writings, which MDA2 dates by an edition of 1834, a resolvi means “to decide”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The old forms in -i and -ui (rezolvi, rezolui) gave way in the 19th century to rezolva of the first conjugation, still conjugated rezolvez at first.^[2][4] The sense “to decide”, used by Maior and in later 19th-century texts, is now obsolete.^[2] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 defines resolvare as “to break the bond between parts, to take apart”, the Latin physical sense.^[9] Șăineanu's dictionary records the learned senses of the time: to decompose a substance, to annul a contract, and in medicine to make a swelling go down.^[10][2] The sense “to solve a question” appears in 1865 and became the main one, with the mathematical use for problems and equations and the bureaucratic “to put a resolution on a document”.^[2][3] In optics the verb says that an instrument can separate fine details.^[5]

Timeline

• 1791 – first record.^[4]
• 1834 – a resolvi “to decide” in Petru Maior's history, in the edition MDA2 cites.^[3][2]
• 1848 – resolvare “to take apart” in Negulici.^[9]
• 1865 – cestiunile ce voiesc a rezolva “the questions they wish to settle”, in the Uricariul.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To solve a problem; to find the answer to a question or the unknowns of an equation.^[5][3][1]
2. To settle a dispute, a litigation or a conflict.^[5][3]
3. (colloquial) to take care of something, to get it done: Am rezolvat cu biletele “I've sorted out the tickets”.^[1][3]
4. To put a resolution on an official document.^[3][7]
5. (optics) to separate and show fine details of an object.^[5]
6. (obsolete) to decide;^[3][2] (rare) to decompose;^[3][2] (law) to annul;^[3][2] (medicine) of a swelling, to subside or make it subside.^[3][2]

Related words

• rezoluție
• soluționa
• Latin resolvō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. rezolva
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 707
4. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. rezolvá
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 954
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. rezolva
7. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. rezolva
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. 348
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 549