vot

Forms

vot n (plural voturi)^[1] The early form was the Latin votum, plural votumuri: Molnar's history has „Toate votumurile sau glasurile era în partea lui Aristides” “all the votes or voices were on the side of Aristides”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French vote.^[4][5][6][1] Tiktin names New Latin vōtum and French, and the DLR Latin, German Votum, French and Italian voto.^[3][2]

French took the word from English vote in 1702, in the sense of a decision of the House of Commons.^[7] The English word is from the Latin word for “vow, wish”, which also gave French vœu (“vow”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 finds the first record in Molnar's 1800 translation of Millot's universal history.^[4] Tiktin dates it to 1801, in Samuil Micu's history.^[3] In Șincai a bishop was deposed „cu votul și sufragiul tuturora” “by the vote and suffrage of all”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Early 19th-century writers glossed the new word: voturile (părerile) “the votes (the opinions)” in 1829.^[2] The verb vota followed in 1830.^[4][8] First an opinion given in a deliberating body, the word came to mean the citizens' choice of their representatives, the suffrage, and the way decisions are adopted.^[5][2] Barcianu (1886) still gives the Latin sense “vow” beside the vote.^[9] Fixed phrases are drept de vot “right to vote”, vot de încredere “vote of confidence” and vot de blam “vote of censure”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1800 – first record, in Molnar's history.^[4]
• 1801 – in Samuil Micu's history.^[3]
• 1813 – votum in a manifesto.^[2]
• 1829 – voturile glossed “the opinions”.^[2]
• 1830 – the verb vota.^[8]
• 1870 – votŭ in Costinescu's dictionary.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The expression of citizens' opinion in electing their representatives, or of the members of an assembly on a candidacy, a proposal or a decision, a vote: Fiecare cetățean are un vot.^[5][1]
2. drept de vot: the voters' right to choose their representatives, suffrage.^[5]
3. vot de încredere / de neîncredere: a vote by which parliament approves or rejects the government's policy.^[5]
4. A way of adopting decisions by state or public bodies.^[5]
5. vot de blam: a sanction by which a group shows its disapproval of a member's action.^[5]

Word family

• vota

Related words

• French vote
• Latin vōtum

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. vot
3. ^ 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. vot
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1515
5. ^ 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. 1207
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. vot
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ 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. votá
9. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 697
10. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 710