sportiv

Forms

sportiv m or n (feminine singular sportivă, masculine plural sportivi, feminine/neuter plural sportive)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French sportif, a borrowing all the modern dictionaries agree on.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} Within Romanian it can also be analysed as from Romanian sport + -iv, and Scriban derived it from the noun.^[1][7] The French adjective is formed in the same way from sport and the suffix -if.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to Alexi's Romanian–German dictionary of 1906.^[2] The early dictionaries give only the adjective “of sport, relating to sport”, as in revistă sportivă “sports magazine” and ocupațiuni sportive “sporting pursuits”.^[8][7]

Semantic evolution

From “relating to sport” the adjective came to mean “used for sport” and “in keeping with the rules of sport”, and it describes a look that shows someone does sport, as in ținută sportivă “sporty outfit”.^[3][2] Used as a noun it names a person who practises sport; the DLR quotes it from Camil Petrescu and Sebastian, and the DLRLC already treats the noun as a separate headword.^[4][9] MDA2 lists the rare synonyms sportist and sportsman beside it.^[2] The adjective also forms compounds such as sportiv-turistic “sporting and touristic”, recorded from 1974.^[10]

Timeline

• 1906 – first record, in Alexi's Romanian–German dictionary.^[2]
• 1929 – Șăineanu defines it only as an adjective: revistă sportivă.^[8]
• 1955–1957 – the DLRLC gives the noun “sportsman, sportswoman” its own headword.^[9]
• 1974 – the compound sportiv-turistic.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to sport; used for practising sports; in keeping with the rules of sport.^[3][2]
2. întâlnire (or întrecere) sportivă, concurs sportiv: a sports competition in which the participants are ranked.^[3][2]
3. Showing that someone practises a sport: Purta o ținută sportivă.^[3]

Noun

1. An athlete, a sportsman or sportswoman: a person who practises sport.^[3][2][1]

Related words

• sport

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 962
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1042
4. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sportiv
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. sportiv
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. sportiv
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1233
8. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 610
9. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 201
10. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. sportiv