taxi

Forms

taxi n (plural taxiuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French taxi, a shortening of taximètre.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Romanian borrowed taximetru from the French full form at the same time.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Cezar Petrescu's novel Calea Victoriei (1931): „să oprească un taxi” “to stop a taxi”.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The word means the same as taximetru, a car that carries passengers for a fare measured by a meter.^[2][3] After 1989 taxi-parti named the private cars that took fares unofficially.^[7]

Timeline

• 1931 – taxi and taximetru in Cezar Petrescu's Calea Victoriei.^[3]
• 1991 – taxi-parti “private taxi” in the press.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A taxi, a car that carries passengers for a fare, usually within a town, with a meter that records the fare.^[2][3][1]

Related words

• taximetru
• taxă

Usage notes

The plural is taxiuri.^[2][1] Tiktin records an obsolete taxí (also taxil) “tax collection”, from Turkish tahsil, in documents of 1814–1815; it has a separate origin.^[8] Taxi- is also a combining form “order, arrangement” in learned words such as taxidermie.^[9][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1105
3. ^ 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, 1163
4. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 848
5. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. taxi
6. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 389
7. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. taxi
8. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. taxi
9. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. taxi
10. ^ Andrei, Nicolae (1987), Dicționar etimologic de termeni științifici: elemente de compunere greco-latine, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. s.v. taxi