# Pensionat



## user663559

Hello,
According to wordreference.com's Romanian-English dictionary, the word "pensionat" refers to two things; a retired person and a boarding school. But my teacher, a Romanian native, says that Romanians do not use the word "pensionat" for referring to a boarding school. So, I wanted to ask if the use of this word in this sense is archaic or specific to certain regions?


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## farscape

This is rather odd... Pension, from French, means boarding school (a bit archaic), but should not be confused with "pensionar" (pensioner) which means a retired person  (gets pension benefits).

Later,
.


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## irinet

Hi,

This is odd indeed, and must be a mistake. It looks like 'partener' - 'partener*iat', '*master - master*at'*, etc a word formation rule that does not apply to this particular case..
But we still have '*pensiune'* for a kind of _hostel_, and the archaic 'pensiune' used for ' girl boarding-school' like, '*pensiune de fete*' long before, no longer in use nowadays.


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## farscape

irinet,

You are not talking about this "pension", are you?

"*PENSIÓN,*_pensioane,_s. n. Instituție școlară particulară de grad elementar sau mediu unde elevii erau găzduiți în perioada școlarizării; pensionat. [Pr.: _-si-on._ – Var.: (înv.) *pansión*s. n.] – Din fr.*pension.*"

dexonline.ro is the best online lexical resource for the Romanian language 

f.


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## irinet

Yes, I am. Was I wrong with something:
'pénsion' (fr.) vs 'pensiune de fete'(rom.)? But I still cannot remember another name for that though I know there is one!


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## irinet

I was looking for *pensionat* as a 'boarding scool' for girls,  and I found this:

"La 19 martie *1851*, domnitorul Barbu Ştirbey hotăra înființarea în Bucureşti a "*Pensionatului* Domnesc de Fete" (the Noblesse Boarding School), devenit "Şcoala Centrală de Fete" (the Midtown Boarding School for Girls).

So, no matter odd the word can be for us in the 21st century, it had existed in the 18th century though we couldn't either know about it, or about its  historical prestige. Interesting . And it is the French word, 'pensión', as Farscape has showed, but it's no longer in use as with this meaning nor this shape. In time, it has got new ones instead, as of  'pensiune' = 'hostel'.

In the end, it seems that we have *two different words, *more exactly homonyms, one in use, and the other one 'dead',* for 'pensionat'/Pensionat: the French 'pensión' *(boarding school)* and the other French 'pensionner' *(retired)*.*


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## user663559

Thank you for the detailed explanations!


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## eva nicolae

https://dexonline.ro/definitie/pensionat


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## Sush78

Amayra said:


> Hello,
> According to wordreference.com's Romanian-English dictionary, the word "pensionat" refers to two things; a retired person and a boarding school. But my teacher, a Romanian native, says that Romanians do not use the word "pensionat" for referring to a boarding school. So, I wanted to ask if the use of this word in this sense is archaic or specific to certain regions?




"pensionat" is an altered form of the French word "pensionnat." The contemporary form is "pension" although, as the previous contributor remarked, it did have the form "pensionat" during the early 19th century.


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