traducere

Forms

traducere f (plural traduceri)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian traduce + -re, the long infinitive of the verb used as a noun of action.^[2][3][4][1] Traduce “to translate” is from Latin trādūcō and French traduire.^[2][4] Ciorănescu dates the Latin loan to the 19th century.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pontbriant's dictionary of 1862 has the noun, glossed with French traduction, version and interprétation.^[6] MDA2's first record is in Negruzzi's writings, collected in 1872, where Heliade shows the suppleness of the language “through translations from Lamartine and Byron”.^[4][3][7] The verb traduce is recorded earlier, in a document of 1794.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is the putting of a text from one language into another, and the written result.^[3][2] From it came “expression by other means, interpretation”: Russo wrote that it was more useful to show the nation's own customs on stage than translations of foreign ones, and Ibrăileanu that words can be the translation of a child's looks and gestures.^[3] MDA2 adds the putting of a plan into practice, the colloquial sense “cheating on one's partner”, and a technical sense in physics.^[4] Older Romanian had several words for “translation”: tălmăcire, tâlcuire, traducție and the rare trăducăciune.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1794 – the verb traduce in a document published by Iorga.^[4]
• 1862 – traducere “translation” in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[6]
• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary.^[8]
• 1872 – Negruzzi's writings, MDA2's first record.^[4]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it with German Übersetzung.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. translation: the act of translating from one language into another and its result; a written text translated from another language: o traducere din engleză.^[2][4]
2. interpretation; the expression of something in another form or by other means.^[2][4]
3. (figurative) The putting of a principle or plan into practice: traducerea în viață a unui proiect.^[4]
4. (colloquial) cheating on a spouse or partner.^[4]
5. (physics) The conversion of one quantity (speed, pressure, temperature) into one of another kind, such as an electric signal.^[4]

Related words

• traduce
• traducător
• tălmăcire
• French traduction

Usage notes

Set phrases include traducere liberă “free translation” and traducere automată “machine translation”.^[3] The older word traducție survives as a synonym.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1135
3. ^ 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. traducere
4. ^ 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, 1248
5. ^ 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. traduce
6. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 745
7. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 464
8. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 626
9. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 652