sân

Forms

sân m (plural sâni)^[1] In the sense “breast of a woman” the plural is sâni (masculine); in the other senses it is sânuri (neuter).^[2] An older variant is sin.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sinus (“fold, cavity, bosom”).^[4][3][1][5] The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian sin, Megleno-Romanian sin and Istro-Romanian sir.^[4][6][7][8] The Romance cognates include Italian seno, Spanish seno, French sein and Portuguese seio.^[4][5]

De Vaan connects the Latin word, probably, with Albanian gji (“breast”), through a Proto-Albanian form with ⟨n⟩; he gives it no further etymology.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, written about 1500–1520.^[3] The Codicele Voronețean uses the word for a bay of the sea, in the account of Paul's shipwreck (Acts 27:39).^[10][11] Coresi's psalter of 1570 has sîn and sînul “bosom”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Ciorănescu explains that the peasant wears his shirt open and belted at the waist, so that its front serves as a pocket; hence phrases such as a umple sânul “to lay in provisions”.^[4] From the chest the word passed to the breast of a woman, the womb, the heart as the seat of feeling and, figuratively, the inside or middle of something (sânul pământului “the bosom of the earth”).^[2][10] The old sense “bay, gulf”, used in old geography books, is now obsolete.^[11][2]

Many idioms are built on the word: a sta cu mâinile în sân “to sit idle”, a crește șarpele în sân “to nourish a viper in one's bosom” and a umbla cu crucea-n sân “to be devout”, or ironically “to be a hypocrite”.^[3][2] În sânul lui Avram “in Abraham's bosom”, from the Gospel parable (Luke 16:22), means “happy, well off”.^[10][2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3]
• c. 1563–1583 – “bay” in the Codicele Voronețean (Acts 27:39).^[10][11]
• 1570 – sîn and sînul “bosom” in Coresi's psalter.^[13]
• 1688 – sânul in the Bucharest Bible, among others for Abraham's bosom (Luke 16:22).^[14][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Each of a woman's two breasts (plural sâni).^[2][1]
2. The front of the human body between the arms; the chest.^[2]
3. The part of a shirt or blouse that covers the chest, and the space between it and the chest, used to carry things;^[2][3] a scuipa în sân is a superstitious gesture against danger or fear.^[2][3]
4. The womb.^[2]
5. The chest as the seat of feeling; the heart, the soul.^[2][15]
6. (figurative) The inside or middle of something: în sânul familiei “within the family”.^[2][15]
7. (obsolete) A bay or gulf.^[2][3]

Related words

• sinus
• Aromanian sin

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 982
3. ^ 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, 782
4. ^ a b c d 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. sîn
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7950
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 948
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 265
8. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 149
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. sân
11. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sîn
12. ^ 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 34:16
13. ^ 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 21:9
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 16:5
15. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1208