sări

Forms

sări (third-person singular present sare, past participle sărit, third-person subjunctive sară) 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin saliō (“to jump, leap”), a verb of the fourth conjugation like its Romanian outcome.^{[2][3][4][1][5][6]} The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sl̥-ye-.^[1]

The verb survives south of the Danube: Aromanian sar and Megleno-Romanian sar.^[2][7][8][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian salire “to go up”, French saillir, Catalan sallir and Spanish salir “to go out”.^[2][6][1] Ciorănescu finds the range of senses natural, since Latin saltō was itself formed on the verb, but takes the sense “to cover (a female)” for a translation of the French verb.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in the Cuvente den bătrâni of about 1550, already has the sense “to jump, leap”: a text condemns those who „cu picioarele curei și săreai și giucai” “ran, jumped and danced with your feet”.^[4][3] Tiktin cites the Codicele Voronețean (Acts 19:16) of the 16th century.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The sense of leaping into the air or onto something is the oldest; from it came jumping over an obstacle, and with an object, skipping a line or a page.^[10][11] Ciorănescu groups further developments: to come out, appear (said above all of game breaking cover before the hunter), to spurt, to run up, to come to someone's help, and to interfere.^[2] The cry Săriți! is a call for help.^[11]

Said of things, the verb means to fly up or spring loose, and a sări în aer means to blow up.^[11] Many idioms name a sudden fit of feeling: a-i sări țandăra “to flare up”, a-și sări din fire “to lose one's temper”.^[11] The present has popular forms săr and sai, and Ciorănescu traces the Muntenian noun saitoc “leap” to such a form.^[11][2]

Timeline

• c. 1550 – in the Cuvente den bătrâni, the first record.^[4][3]
• 16th century – in the Codicele Voronețean (Acts 19:16).^[10]
• 1648 – „sări și îmblă” “leap and walk” in the New Testament of 1648.^[4]
• 1660 – the form sar in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, glossing Slavonic words for “to leap”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To jump, to leap up from the ground and come down again;^[11][3][1] (popular) to dance.^[11][3][1]
2. To move in leaps;^[11] (figurative) to pass suddenly from one state or idea to another.^[11]
3. To jump over something; with an object, to skip or leave out (a passage, a line).^[11][1]
4. To rise or rush suddenly; to hurry to help someone; to break into a conversation.^[11]
5. Of things, to fly up or spring loose; to spurt;^[11] a sări în aer “to blow up”.^[11]
6. (popular, of male animals) To cover, mate with.^[3][2]

Word family

• săritor
• săritoare
• săritură

Related words

• răsări
• tresări
• sălta
• Latin saliō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. sări
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 778
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sări
5. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7540
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 915
8. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 151
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 257
10. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. sări
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 981
12. ^ 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. sar