text

Forms

text n (plural texte)^[1] An older form test occurs in Budai-Deleanu, who explains it as a weaving of words: „Unui test (adecă înșirături sau țăsături de cuvinte) ... nu să poate da un înțăles mai larg decât cuprinde în sine” “a text (that is, a stringing or weaving of words) … cannot be given a wider meaning than it holds in itself”.^[2][3] Besides the plural texte, MDA2 records an old plural texturi.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French texte, with Latin textus as a second source, the two that DEX names.^[5][6] MDA2 and DLR add German Text and Italian testo, and NODEX names Latin, French and German, so the word is a case of multiple borrowing.^[3][7][8] Tiktin derives the modern word from Latin and the older form ⟨test⟩ from Italian.^[2]

The Latin word meant “a pattern of weaving, a woven fabric”; it is formed texō (“to weave”) with the action-noun suffix -tus.^[9][1] Late Latin used it for the wording of a speech or account, and French took it over about 1155.^[10] The German word was borrowed from Latin in the 14th century.^[11] Graur places the word in the Latin family of the verb, whose inherited Romanian descendant is țese, beside the learned textil, context and pretext.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is Budai-Deleanu in 1818, with the form test in the sense “wording of a text”.^[2] MDA2 cites a Pravila for the first record, but the year 1814 its reference gives belongs to an edition, not to the text it quotes.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In 1848 Negulici glossed the word as an author's own words in a book.^[13] Costinescu (1870) adds a passage of Scripture quoted at the start of a sermon and the words set to music.^[14] Șăineanu (1929) lists the author's words as against notes, commentary or translations, the Bible passage a preacher takes as his subject and, figuratively, the subject of a talk.^[15] A printing sense came from German: Scriban names the typeface of 20 points, French petit parangon.^[16]

The 19th-century quotations in DLR show the word used of the text of a law, of church canons and of old chronicles.^[7] Recent press coined the compound text-cheie “key text”.^[17]

Timeline

• 1818 – test in Budai-Deleanu, the first record in Tiktin.^[2]
• 1848 – Negulici glosses text as an author's own words.^[13]
• 1870 – Costinescu adds the Bible passage of a sermon and the words of a song.^[14]
• 1939 – Scriban records the typeface sense.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. What is set down in writing: the content of a literary or scientific work, a speech, a law and so on.^[5][3]
2. A passage or part of a piece of writing.^[5][18]
3. The words of a piece of music, the lyrics.^[5][3]
4. (printing) A typeface with a body of 20 points.^[5][16]

Related words

• țese
• textil
• context
• pretext
• Latin textus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. text
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, 1213
4. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1123
6. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. text
7. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. text
8. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. text
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 915
12. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
13. ^ 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. text
14. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 613
15. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 650
16. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1315
17. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. text
18. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. text