sursă

Forms

sursă f (plural surse)^[1] MDA2 records an old neuter variant surs.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French source.^[3][2][4][1] The French word, from Old French sorse (about 1155) and surse, is the noun use of the feminine of the old past participle of sourdre (“to spring up”).^[5] That participle comes from Vulgar Latin *sursum, a popular form which replaced Latin surrēctus, the participle of surgō (“to rise”).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is Pelimon's travel impressions of Romania, where the word means a spring of water.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, “spring of a river”, is now obsolete, and MDA2 gives izvor as its synonym.^[2] Scriban still condemned the word in 1939 as a barbarism for izvor and sorginte.^[6]

Its modern senses are abstract and technical: an origin or cause, the place where information comes from, a document used in research, a source of inspiration, and in physics a body that gives off sound, light or radiation.^[2][4] Electronics uses it for an electrode of a field-effect transistor.^[4] In journalism pe surse means “from an anonymous source”.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A place where something is produced, found or from which it spreads; the origin of something.^[4][2][1]
2. A body or system that gives off sound, light or radiation: sursă de lumină “light source”;^[8] sursă de energie electrică “electric generator”.^[4][8]
3. (electronics) The electrode of a field-effect transistor that supplies the majority charge carriers.^[4]
4. A means of income.^[4]
5. (figurative) The place a piece of news or information comes from: din surse sigure “from reliable sources”.^[4][2]
6. (figurative) Origin, beginning;^[9] sursă de inspirație “source of inspiration”.^[4]

Related words

• resursă
• sorginte
• French source

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1074
3. ^ 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. sursă
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1080
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. source
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1271
7. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. sursă
8. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 321
9. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 165