vital

Forms

vital m or n (feminine singular vitală, masculine plural vitali, feminine/neuter plural vitale)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French vital, with Latin vītālis as a second model, a neologism of the 19th century.^[2][3][1] MDA2 adds German Vital as a source, and the DLR assigns its senses to the sources separately: “of life” and “essential to life” from Latin and French, “relating to life” from Latin and German, and the rare “full of life” from German.^[4][5] Scriban gave the Latin word alone.^[6] The old variant ⟨vitale⟩ is from Italian vitale.^[5][4]

The Latin adjective, “of life, belonging to life”, is formed from vīta (“life”) with the suffix -ālis.^[7][1] The French word was borrowed from it at the end of the 13th century.^[8] The German adjective is recorded from about 1800, also from the Latin word.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Ștefan Episcupescu's book on the mineral waters of Wallachia (1837), where air enters the lungs and “spends all its vital part” there; elsewhere in the same author “vital air” and “vital spirit” are his names for oxygen.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The first senses were medical and physical: what belongs to life or keeps it going, as in funcții vitale “vital functions”.^[5] Heliade-Rădulescu used the Italian-shaped form in “acea vitale coastă” “that vital rib” of Adam.^[5] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 explained it as “belonging to the principles of life, needed to preserve life”.^[10] In philosophy and biology principiu vital is the vital principle of vitalism.^[4][11]

The figurative sense “of the greatest importance, essential” was current by the early 20th century (o chestiune vitală “a vital question”), and DEX now gives it as the second main sense.^[12][2] Rare senses are “viable” and “full of vitality”.^[4]

Timeline

• 1837 – first record, in Episcupescu's book on mineral waters.^[5][4]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[10]
• 1870 – in Costinescu's dictionary, with French vital.^[13]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it with German zum Leben gehörig, lebensfähig.^[14]
• 1929 – the figurative sense “very important” in Șăineanu.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of life; belonging to life or essential to it: funcții vitale, organ vital.^[2][4]
2. Of the greatest importance; essential, fundamental, indispensable: o problemă vitală.^[2][15]
3. (philosophy, biology) In principiu vital or forță vitală: the vital principle, which vitalism holds to be distinct from matter.^[4][11]
4. (rare) Full of vitality.^[4]

Related words

• viață
• vitalitate
• vitalism
• Latin vīta

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1201
3. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. vital
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1493
5. ^ 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. vital
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1410
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. vitalis
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. vital
9. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de, p. s.v. vital
10. ^ 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. vital
11. ^ a b Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. vital
12. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 699
13. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 704
14. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 694
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. vital