săptămână

Forms

săptămână f (plural săptămâni)^[1] Old texts also have a plural săptămâne, and regional speech a shortened stămână.^[2] The spelling săptămînă was standard from 1953 to 1993.^[1] The Lexicon de la Buda (1825) spells it etymologically Sẻptỉmảnả and glosses it with Latin hebdomas and septimana, Hungarian hét and German Woche.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin septimāna (“week”), a Late Latin noun made from the Latin adjective septimānus (“of the number seven”), itself formed on septimus (“seventh”).^[4][1][2] The Latin adjective had meant “falling on the seventh day of the month”, said of festivals.^[5] The word was inherited by most Romance languages: Italian settimana, French semaine, Catalan setmana, Spanish semana and Portuguese semana.^[4][6][7]

It survives south of the Danube as Aromanian siptãmãnã and Megleno-Romanian săptămonă.^[4][8][9] Pușcariu took the Aromanian stămână, from an older ⟨*setămână⟩, to be the regular development of the Latin word, unaffected by septem (“seven”).^[10] Romanian regional speech also has the short form stămână.^[2] DER, MDA2 and DEX all derive the word from Latin.^[4][2][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 gives the first record from Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581, with the sense “week”.^[2] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use the word to translate Slavonic words for a week and a turn of service.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is a period of seven days, counted in Romania from Monday morning to Sunday evening; by extension it is any seven consecutive days.^[11][2] Much of the word's phraseology comes from the Orthodox calendar: Săptămâna Mare or Săptămâna Patimilor is Holy Week, the last week before Easter, and Săptămâna Luminată is the week beginning on Easter Sunday.^[11][13] Pușcariu compared săptămâna mare with the same expression in Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian and with Albanian.^[10] The Săptămâna Brânzei, the “cheese week”, is the first week of the Easter fast, when the Orthodox Church allows milk products.^[11] MDA2 records many regional names for the weeks around Easter and before Lent, such as the “week of the fools”, of the eggs or of the fish.^[2]

The word also names a week given over officially to some activity, as in săptămâna cărții “book week”, and in the plural an indefinite long stretch of time.^[11] The press of the 1970s used săptămână-record for a week of record output.^[14] The expression a fi în săptămâna oarbă means to fail to see what is going on.^[11]

Timeline

• 1581 – the first record, in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[2]
• c. 1642–1647 – săptămână and săptămâni in Grigore Ureche's chronicle, known from later copies.^[1]
• 1660 – the form săptămânile in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – săptămână and its plural throughout the Bucharest Bible.^[15]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda spells it Sẻptỉmảnả.^[3]
• 1975 – săptămână-record “a week of record output” in the press.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A week: a period of seven consecutive days, reckoned from Monday morning to Sunday evening; by extension, any period of seven days.^[11][2][1]
2. (Christianity) In set names of the weeks of the church year: Săptămâna Mare “Holy Week”, Săptămâna Luminată “Easter week”, Săptămâna Brânzei “the first week of the Easter fast”.^[11][2]
3. A week officially devoted to some activity: săptămâna cărții “book week”.^[11][16]
4. (in the plural) A long, indefinite stretch of time: A așteptat săptămâni întregi un răspuns.^[11]

Word family

• săptămânal

Related words

• Aromanian siptãmãnã
• Latin septimus

Usage notes

The phrase a fi (sau a intra) în săptămâna oarbă means “to be blind to what is happening, to act without thinking”.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 774
3. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 633
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. săptămînă
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7834
7. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 950
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 257
10. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 135
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 980
12. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. săptămână
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 565
14. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. săptămână
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Daniel 9:27
16. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. săptămână