sezon

Forms

sezon n (plural sezoane)^[1] Older texts have a feminine sesonă or sezonă and a form sezoană: „boalele ce aducea vântul de la amiazi în acea sesonă” “the illnesses that the south wind brought in that season” (Aristia).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French saison.^{[4][5][3][2][1]} Scriban also names Russian сезон (sezon).^[6]

The French word continues Latin satiō (“sowing, the time of sowing”), from the supine of serō (“to sow, plant”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is from Barasch's Minunele naturei of 1852, which explains the word with timpuri: „S-au făcut pe Pământ patru sezoane (timpuri)” “four seasons (times) were made on Earth”, namely spring, summer, autumn and winter.^[3][2] The DLR also quotes the feminine sesonă from Aristia's translation of Plutarch.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the seasons of the year it passed to the period when something happens or is done: the winter season of a tailor's advertisement in 1858, the rainy season, the bathing season.^[2][5] Șăineanu and Scriban described it as a word of commerce, and the DN calls the plain sense “season of the year” rare beside anotimp.^[8][6][9]

The phrase de sezon means “seasonal” and figuratively “topical”.^[5] Newer uses are sezonul alb “the winter sports season”, modelled on French saison blanche in 1978, and a season of a television series, from 2008.^[10]

Timeline

• 1852 – sezoane “seasons” in Barasch, MDA2's first record.^[3][2]
• 1858 – sezonul de iarnă in an advertisement in Românul.^[2]
• 1859 – sesonul ploios “the rainy season” in the periodical Isis.^[2]
• 1939 – Scriban labels it a merchants' word.^[6]
• 1978 – sezonul alb “the winter sports season”.^[10]
• 2008 – a season of a television series.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A season of the year, roughly the same as anotimp.^[5][1]
2. A period of the year marked by certain phenomena or by intense activity, or suited to certain work: sezon de băi “bathing season”;^[5][3] de sezon “seasonal”, (figurative) topical.^[5][3]
3. sezon mort: the off-season, when activity in a field stops or falls off.^[3]
4. sezon oprit or interzis: the closed season for hunting and fishing.^[3]
5. A series of episodes of a television serial.^[10]

Related words

• anotimp
• French saison

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. sezon
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, 868
4. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. sezon
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1010
6. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1192
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 587
9. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. sezon
10. ^ a b c d Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. sezon