voluntar

Forms

voluntar m or n (feminine singular voluntară, masculine plural voluntari, feminine/neuter plural voluntare)^[1] volontar: „să-și încheie aice cariera sa prin o moarte volontară” “to end his career here by a voluntary death” (Asachi).^[2] voluntariu: „un așa numit împrumut național voluntariu” “a so-called voluntary national loan” (Barițiu).^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin voluntārius (“voluntary”) and French volontaire, with Italian volontario as a further model: the DLR and MDA2 name all three,^[2][3] DN and MDN put Latin first,^[4][5] DEX puts French first,^[6] and Wiktionary derives it from French.^[1] Gabinschi classes it as a Latin loan supported by the French and Italian words.^[7] The Latin adjective is formed with -ārius on voluntās (“will”),^[8] a noun that comes from volō (“to want”).^[1]

Its doublet is volintir “irregular volunteer soldier”, recorded from about 1710;^[9][1] DEX lists it as an old variant of the noun and traces it to Russian.^[6][9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 takes its first record from Heliade-Rădulescu's works, without a year.^[3] Among the DLR's early quotations for the adjective is Asachi's “voluntary death”, in the form volontară; for the noun it quotes Laurian on a man serving as a volunteer in the Dutch army.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The adjective first described acts done of one's own free will, such as a voluntary death or a voluntary loan.^[2] A second sense, “wilful, headstrong”, is quoted from Ghica, Baronzi and Ibrăileanu on.^[2] Costinescu (1870) defines the noun as one who joins the army of his own will.^[10] The wider sense, someone who offers a service freely and without pay, is given by MDN and DEX.^[5][6] The compound voluntar-patriotic described work done unpaid “for patriotic purposes” under communism.^[11]

Timeline

• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary gives the noun “volunteer soldier”.^[10]
• 1886 – Barcianu gives both the noun and the adjective.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. voluntary: acting or done of one's own free will, without constraint.^[6][3]
2. Expressing will;^[4] act voluntar a conscious, deliberate act.^[6]
3. Imposing one's will; wilful, headstrong.^[6][4]

Noun

1. A volunteer soldier: one who enlists without being obliged to, or who joins a campaign or a combat mission of his own accord.^[6][2]
2. A person who offers to do a service freely and without pay.^[6][5]

Related words

• volintir

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. voluntar
3. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1509
4. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. voluntar
5. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. voluntar
6. ^ 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. 1206
7. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 182
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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. volintir
10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 709
11. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. voluntar
12. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 696