teorie

Forms

teorie f (plural teorii)^[1] Old texts spell it theorie: a document of 1804 speaks of „cercetarea și theoria ce s-a făcut socotelilor” “the examination and review made of the accounts”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Modern Greek θεωρία (theoría) of the 18th century, and later, in its modern senses, borrowed from French théorie, as Ciorănescu puts it.^[4][5] MDA2 and the DLR name Modern Greek, Latin theoria, German Theorie and the French word together;^{[3][6][7][8][1]} DEX gives French and Latin, NODEX Greek, Latin and French, and Wiktionary French alone.^{[3][6][7][8][1]} Tiktin derives it from Greek or Latin, partly through other languages.^[2]

The Latin word is from Ancient Greek θεωρία (theōría), which first meant the office and mission of a θεωρός (theōrós, “spectator; envoy to an oracle or festival”), then viewing; with Plato it came to mean contemplation and philosophical reasoning.^[9][10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints (1682–1686), which says of a man who strove in practical philosophy that he advanced „la teoriia sau vedearea celora ce sânt” “to the theory, or the seeing, of the things that are”, glossing the new word with a native one.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the Phanariote period the word was used for speculation, recorded by Gáldi from 1705 to 1820.^[5] An old administrative sense was the checking of accounts, as in the 1804 document.^[2][3] Negulici defined it in 1848 as the principles of an art, the opposite of practice.^[11] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 adds the military sense, the study of the principles of manoeuvres, still a sense of the word.^[12][7]

Today it is a system of ideas that explains a set of facts, and also any one attempt to explain them;^[7] în teorie means “in the abstract”.^[7] In familiar speech a-i face cuiva teorie or teoria chibritului is to lecture someone, or to talk to no purpose.^[3]

Timeline

• 1682–1686 – teoriia in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1705 – the first of Gáldi's Phanariote records.^[5]
• 1804 – theoria “review” of accounts in a document.^[2]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[11]
• 1870 – the military sense in Costinescu's dictionary.^[12]
• 1930 – teorie “sacred embassy of a Greek city” in Șăineanu.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A theory: an answer to a philosophical or scientific question, based on evidence and systematically linked with others into a whole; a well-founded interpretation of the evidence.^[7][3]
2. Any of the attempts to explain the same set of facts or problem;^[7] în teorie “in the abstract, in theory”.^[7]
3. In set phrases: teoria informației “information theory”, teoria literaturii “literary theory”, teoria relativității “the theory of relativity”, teoria numerelor “number theory”.^[7][3]
4. The theoretical part of military training.^[7][3]
5. (colloquial) a-i face cuiva teorie: to lecture someone.^[3]

Word family

• teoretician
• teoretic

Related words

• practic
• Ancient Greek θεωρία (theōría)

Usage notes

A second teorie, from the French and Greek sense of the word, names a solemn embassy sent by a Greek city to games or an oracle, and rarely a procession or a row of things; it is recorded from Șăineanu's dictionary of 1930.^[3][6] The word is pronounced with two syllables in te-o-.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. teorie
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1201
4. ^ 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. teorie
5. ^ a b c Gáldi, Ladislas (1939), Les mots d'origine néo-grecque en roumain à l'époque des Phanariotes, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, p. 260
6. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. teorie
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1118
8. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. teorie
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 564
10. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 915
11. ^ 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. teorie
12. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 608