specialitate

Forms

specialitate f (plural specialități)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French spécialité, borrowed from Latin speciālitās: these are the sources the DEX, the neologism dictionaries and Wiktionary give.^[2][3][1] MDA2 and the DLR name a third model, borrowed from German Spezialität.^[4][5] The German word is the abstract noun of spezial, from speciālis, from speciēs (“kind, appearance”).^[6] Scriban took it from Medieval Latin alone.^[7] In Romanian terms it matches special with the suffix -itate.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is Iordache Golescu's dictionary manuscript Condica limbii rumânești, of about 1832.^[4] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms (1848) has it with both -ci- and -ți-, defined as the quality of a particular thing and a special talent.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The 19th-century dictionaries define it as a particular branch of study: Pontbriant in 1862, Costinescu in 1870.^[9][10] Scriban also lists a medicine sold under its maker's name and, of people, a specialist.^[7] The modern dictionaries have the branch of a science or trade in which someone works, the phrase de specialitate “specialist, professional”, and a product or dish made to a particular recipe.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1832 – the first record, in Golescu's Condica limbii rumânești.^[4]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[8]
• 1862 – “a special branch of study” in Pontbriant.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A specialty: a branch of a science, of technology or of an art which someone studies and practises as a profession;^[2][3][1] de specialitate “specialist, professional”, also of a person competent in a field.^[2][3][1]
2. A product or dish made to a particular recipe or method; a house speciality.^[2][3]
3. (dated) A proprietary medicine bearing the name of its inventor or maker.^[7]

Related words

• special
• specialist
• French spécialité

Usage notes

It is pronounced with -ci-a- in separate syllables.^[2][4]

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. 1038
3. ^ a b c d e Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. specialitate
4. ^ 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, 948
5. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. specialitate
6. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 866
7. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1227
8. ^ 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. specialitate
9. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 691
10. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 540