termina

Forms

termina (third-person singular present termină, dated terminează, past participle terminat, third-person subjunctive termine) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is a neologism, borrowed from French terminer, with Latin terminō (“to set bounds to, to end”) as a second model.^[2][3][4][5] Tiktin gives the Latin word as the model, taken directly or through another language.^[6] The Latin verb is formed on terminus (“boundary stone, limit, end”) and first meant to mark out the boundaries of a territory.^[7][1] The French verb was borrowed from it in the 12th century.^[8]

The Latin family reached Romanian twice: țărm “shore” is the inherited form of the Latin noun, while termen, determina and extermina are modern loans like this verb.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from Budai-Deleanu (1818), in the grammatical sense “to end in”: Latin names that end in us drop their last letter in Romanian, „Numele lătenești ce terminează în us, la români lapădă letera de pre urmă”.^[6] Bobb's Romanian–Latin–Hungarian dictionary of 1822 has it with the general sense “to finish”, which is MDA2's first record.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The verb kept the Latin senses “to finish” and “to come to an end”, with the reflexive a se termina for the second.^[2][4] The present was long conjugated with -ez (terminez), which Tiktin and Wiktionary mark as dated, and the modern present is termin.^[6][1]

In the 20th century colloquial phrases appeared: a termina cu cineva “to break off with someone” and s-a terminat cu el “he is done for”.^[4][3] Slang gave it the senses “to kill”, “to ruin” and “to reach orgasm”.^[10]

Timeline

• 1818 – terminează “ends (in)” in Budai-Deleanu, the first record.^[6]
• 1822 – Bobb's dictionary has the verb.^[3][4]
• 1875 – Antonescu's dictionary glosses it with French terminer, finir, achever.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To finish, complete: to carry an action through to its end: Și-a terminat temele înainte de cină., pe terminate “nearly finished, running out”.^[2][1]
2. (reflexive) To come to an end, to be over, to run out: Filmul s-a terminat târziu.^[2][1]
3. (reflexive, grammar) To end in a given sound or letter: Cuvântul „casă” se termină cu o vocală.^[2][12]
4. (intransitive, colloquial) a termina cu ceva or cu cineva: to stop doing something, to break off with someone.^[3][1]
5. (reflexive, colloquial) s-a terminat cu cineva: someone has no chance of escape left.^[2][3]
6. (slang) To kill, to ruin, to reach orgasm.^[10][1]

Related words

• interminabil
• terminație
• termen
• determina
• extermina
• Latin terminō

Usage notes

The present is termin, termini, termină.^[2] MDA2 also records a popular stress termín and an old terminez.^[3][2] A regional form termena occurs in folk texts.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1119
3. ^ 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, 1205
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. termina
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. termina
6. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. termina
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 101
10. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. termina
11. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 311
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 649