tentativă

Forms

tentativă f (plural tentative)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French tentative, one of the French neologisms of the 19th century.^[2][3][1][4] The French word is from Medieval Latin tentātīva, from tentō (“to attempt”).^[1][5] Marcu and Maneca compare also Italian tentativo.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Negulici's vocabulary of 1848 has it as an attempt to do or to bring off something, glossed with Latin tentāmentum.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 adds the legal phrase tentativă de crimă “attempted crime”, an act preparing an offence that was not committed.^[8] The two senses, a doubtful or failed attempt and a criminal attempt, are those of the modern dictionaries.^[2][3] In prison slang a tentativă is an inmate who schemes for a better place in the prison.^[9]

Timeline

• 1848 – the first record, in Negulici's vocabulary of neologisms.^[3][7]
• 1870 – the legal sense “attempted offence”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. An attempt: an action undertaken to achieve something without the certainty of success, often an unsuccessful one.^[2][3][6]
2. (law) An attempt to commit an offence.^[2][3]

Related words

• tenta
• French tentative

References

1. ^ a b c 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. 1117
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, 1200
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. tentativă
5. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1311
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. tentativă
7. ^ 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. tentativă
8. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 607
9. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. tentativă