zero

Forms

zero n (plural zerouri, rarely zeruri)^[2][3] A colloquial variant is zeru.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French zéro.^[4][3][5][1] DN names Italian zero beside the French.^[2] The French word was borrowed in 1485 from the Italian, a contraction of zefiro, from Medieval Latin zephirum, which renders Arabic صفر (ṣifr, “empty, zero”).^[6] Scriban gives the same chain and adds that the Arabic word translated an Indian term for “empty”.^[7] The Arabic word had earlier given French chiffre, whence Romanian cifră.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is in Iordache Golescu's dictionary of about 1832.^[4] Negulici's dictionary of new words (1848) glosses it with the older term nulă “nought”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is the number and the digit 0, for which older Romanian said nulă.^[4][8] By 1870 Costinescu recorded the figurative sense, a man of no account (acest om este un zero), and the zero of Réaumur's thermometer.^[9] Later senses include the starting point of any scale, the absolute zero of physics, and the linguist's zero ending.^[4][10] Colloquial phrases are tuns zero “close-cropped” and zero lei “nothing at all”, and after 2000 the press used clasa zero for the year before first grade.^[4][11]

Timeline

• c. 1832 – zero in Golescu's Condica.^[4]
• 1848 – listed by Negulici, glossed nulă.^[8]
• 1870 – the figurative “a nobody” and the zero of a thermometer.^[9]
• 1886 – glossed German Nulle by Barcianu.^[12]

Meanings

Numeral

1. zero, nought: the number that comes before one and stands for an empty quantity, written 0.^[3][4]

Noun

1. The digit 0, which placed after another digit multiplies a number by ten.^[3] A reduce ceva la zero: to reduce something to nothing.^[3]
2. (figurative) A person of no account, a nonentity.^[3][4]
3. (physics) The point from which a scale is measured, especially the freezing point of water on the Celsius scale.^[3] Zero absolut: absolute zero.^[3][4]

Related words

• cifră
• nul

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. zero
3. ^ 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. 1223
4. ^ 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, 1564
5. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. zero
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1437
8. ^ a b c 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. zero
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 717
10. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. zero
11. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. zero
12. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 702