sinceritate

Forms

sinceritate f (plural sincerități)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French sincérité together with Latin sincēritās, as DEX 2009 and Marcu give it.^[2][3] MDA2 and NODEX name French alone, Scriban and Pontbriant Latin alone, and Tiktin derived it from Italian sincerità.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} Wiktionary adds that it can be read as from Romanian sincer + -itate.^[1]

The Latin noun is formed sincērus with -tās, and first meant physical wholeness, soundness and purity.^[9][1][10] The French word is a learned borrowing from it.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Samuil Micu's history, dated 1801, in the sense “honesty, sincerity”.^[8] MDA2 dates it to the Curierul românesc of 1829.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed that of the Latin and French abstract noun: the quality of being sincere.^[2] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms explained it in 1848 as purity of the soul, candour, and Laurian and Massim illustrated it with phrases such as sinceritatea amicilor “the sincerity of friends” and the sincerity of a document or of testimony.^[11][12] The phrase cu sinceritate “sincerely, wholeheartedly” and a rare countable sense “a confidence, a confession” in the plural sincerități are recorded in MDA2 and DEX 2009.^[4][2]

Timeline

• 1801 – first record, in Samuil Micu's history.^[8]
• 1829 – in the Curierul românesc.^[4]
• 1848 – listed among the neologisms in Negulici's dictionary, from Latin sinceritas.^[11]
• 1862 – in Pontbriant's dictionary, glossed with French sincérité, loyauté, franchise.^[7]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses it franchețe, candoare, naivitate.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. sincerity: the quality of being sincer; absence of pretence or guile; frankness, loyalty.^[2][1] Cu sinceritate “sincerely, from the heart”: I-a vorbit cu toată sinceritatea.^[2][1][4]
2. (rare, in the plural) A confidence, a confession.^[2][4]

Related words

• sincer
• Latin sincēritās

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1020
3. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. sinceritate
4. ^ 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, 895
5. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. sinceritate
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1203
7. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 679
8. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. sinceritate
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ 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. s.v. sinceritate
12. ^ Laurian, A. T.; Massim, I. C. (1871–1876), Dictionariulu limbei romane, 2 vols., Bucuresci: Noua Typographia a Laboratoriloru Romani, p. s.v. sinceritate
13. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 521