servietă

Forms

servietă f (plural serviete)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French serviette, the source in DEX, DILF, Wiktionary and the neologism dictionaries.^[2][3][1][4] MDA2, NODEX and the DLR add borrowed from German Serviette; the DLR gives German only for the older sense “napkin”.^[5][6][7] Gabinschi calls it a European loan of French origin, taken through German, and pairs it with șervet “napkin”, an older borrowing of the same French word.^[8]

The French word is formed from servir (“to serve”) with the diminutive suffix -ette.^[1] German took it in the early 16th century in the sense “napkin”.^[9] The French verb comes from Latin serviō (“to serve, be a slave”), a verb related to servus (“servant”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to George Barițiu's Părți alese din istoria Transilvaniei (1889), where it means “napkin”: one should not blow one's nose „cu mâna, nici în servietă” “with the hand, nor into the napkin”.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, “napkin”, is now obsolete; it was soon replaced by the briefcase, the flat leather bag with compartments for papers, books or exercise books.^[5][7] The DLR quotes the briefcase from Vlahuță on, and Barcianu's dictionary lists it.^[7] Scriban describes it as a large portfolio carried under the arm or by a handle, the lawyer's attribute.^[11]

Timeline

• 1889 – first record, in the sense “napkin”, in George Barițiu.^[5][7]
• 1939 – Scriban defines it as a large portfolio carried under the arm.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A briefcase: a bag of leather or plastic, often with a handle and several compartments, for carrying papers and books.^[2][5]
2. (obsolete) A napkin, a table napkin.^[5][7]

Related words

• șervet
• servi
• geantă

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1009
3. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. servietă
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. servietă
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 865
6. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. servietă
7. ^ 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. servietă
8. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 168
9. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de, p. Serviette
10. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 845
11. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1192