valora

Forms

valora (third-person singular present valorează, past participle valorat), first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is a verb from Romanian valoare (“value”), made in Romanian in the 19th century.^[2][3][1][4] MDA2 and the DLR compare French valoir (“to be worth”), whose meaning it took.^[3][5] The noun is a loan of valor, Italian valore and French valeur.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and the DLR quote Ion Heliade-Rădulescu first, in a sentence where a flawless sonnet is worth as much as a long poem.^[3][5] The first dated record is Costinescu's dictionary of 1870.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The verb meant at first “to have a value, to be worth something”.^[5] The sense “to cost, to be priced at” grew from it, as in făina valora 7 bani oca “flour was worth 7 bani an oca”.^[5][3] It replaced older verbs of the same sense: a vala, a germanism, and a valuta.^[5][3] A rare transitive use, “to put to use, to valorize; to appraise”, is in MDA2 and DEXI.^[3][8] The idiom nu valorează nici cât o ceapă degerată “it isn't worth a frozen onion” says that something is worthless.^[8]

Timeline

• 1831 – the noun valoare “value”.^[7]
• 1870 – valora in Costinescu's dictionary.^[5]
• 1886 – in Barcianu's dictionary.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To have or represent a certain value; to be worth: Casa valorează mult. “The house is worth a lot.”^[2][3]
2. (intransitive) To cost, to be priced at.^[3][5]
3. (intransitive, figurative) To deserve esteem, to count for something.^[8][3]
4. (transitive, rare) To valorize, to put to use; to appraise.^[3][8]

Related words

• valoare
• French valoir

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1182
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1410
4. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. valora
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. valorá
6. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1409
7. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. valoáre
8. ^ a b c d Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. valora