senzor

Forms

senzor m (plural senzori)^[1] The word is also written sensor, as in a newspaper report of 1974 on traffic control in Tokyo: „O rețea de 2000 sensori ultrasonici” “a network of 2,000 ultrasonic sensors”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English sensor and French senseur: DEX, MDN, the dictionary of French loanwords and Wiktionary all name both languages as its source.^[3][4][5][1] MDA2 gives the same two sources.^[6] Dimitrescu's dictionary of recent words also derives it from English and French and records the spelling with ⟨s⟩, which follows the English and French form.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in Dimitrescu's collection is a newspaper report of June 1974, where a network of ultrasonic sensors counts the speed and number of cars on the main roads of Tokyo.^[2] MDA2 dates the word only from the second edition of DEX (1998).^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word arrived as a technical term for a device that reacts to a physical phenomenon, and it has kept that sense.^[3][2] Later press quotations show it in medicine, as the probe of an ultrasonic instrument placed on the chest (1984), and in everyday devices such as a self-compacting rubbish bin (2011).^[2] MDN adds a sense “organ of sense” beside the technical one.^[4]

Timeline

• 1974 – sensori “sensors” in a newspaper report on traffic control, the first record.^[2]
• 1984 – the sensor of an ultrasonic locator in a medical report.^[2]
• 1998 – entered in the second edition of DEX, MDA2's first record.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sensor: a highly sensitive device that detects a particular phenomenon; in physics and technology.^[3][6][1]
2. A device that produces a signal showing that a given situation has arisen, or that tracks the change of a parameter in a process.^[4][2]
3. An organ of sense.^[4]

Related words

• English sensor
• French senseur

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE)
3. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1006
4. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
5. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria
6. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 860