neted

Forms

neted m or n (feminine singular netedă, masculine plural netezi, feminine/neuter plural netede)^[1] MDA2 records the old variant netid and a rare nedet;^[2][3] Jipescu wrote „mărg strună și netid” “everything goes smoothly”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nitidus (“shining, bright, polished”).^{[4][3][2][5][6][7]} Its Romance cognates include Italian netto, Sardinian nidu, French net, Catalan net and Portuguese nedeo.^[4] The Latin adjective is formed from niteō (“to shine”) with -idus; its later sense “pure, clean” lives on in Gallo- and Italo-Romance, while Romanian kept “smooth”.^[1][8] The French word came into Romanian separately as net, a doublet.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1392, in a document.^[3] The form netezi appears in Coresi's Psalter of 1570 (Ps 17:46), and MDA2 dates the adjective from the Romanian Herodotus of 1645.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is a surface without roughness, and so polished or slippery; it extends to skin without wrinkles, sleek hair, and level ground or a road without bumps.^[10][2] An old noun use meant “brightness”, closer to the Latin.^[2][5] Old and folk texts used it for things going smoothly and easily: Dosoftei has the saints living neted in heaven, and a-i veni neted means “to suit someone, come easy”.^[3][10] From the 19th century it also means “clear, plain, frank”: Odobescu wrote „pricina era netedă” “the matter was clear”.^[3][11]

Names such as Niatedul and Netedul and the place name Netezești are formed on it.^[12] In anatomy mușchi neted is a smooth muscle, without striations.^[10][5]

Timeline

• 1392 – the first record, in a document.^[3]
• 1570 – netezi in Coresi's Psalter.^[9]
• 1645 – in the Romanian Herodotus.^[2]
• 1682–1686 – in Dosoftei's Viața și petrecerea svinților.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. smooth, with a surface without roughness; by extension polished, slippery; of skin, without wrinkles; of hair, sleek: o masă netedă.^[10][2]
2. Of ground or roads, level, flat, without bumps;^[10] a-i veni neted “to come easy, suit someone”.^[10]
3. (figurative) clear, precise, plain; frank, direct.^[10][11]
4. mușchi neted, fibră netedă: smooth muscle, muscle fibre without striations.^[10]

Word family

• netezi
• neteziș
• netezitoare

Related words

• net
• Latin nitidus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 146
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. neted
4. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. neted
5. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. neted
6. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 102
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5929
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 17:46
10. ^ 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. 713
11. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 204
12. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. neted