sărman

Forms

sărman m or n (feminine singular sărmană, masculine plural sărmani, feminine/neuter plural sărmane)^[1] Old texts have many variants: the New Testament of 1648 has suromană „Această văduo suromană mai multe aruncă de toți” “this poor widow has cast in more than all”, and Dosoftei sărăiman.^[2] Other old and regional forms are siriman, sirman, sâr(u)man, suruman, săriman and in Transylvania sălimán.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic сиромахъ (siromaxŭ, “poor man”), with the ending replaced by the suffix -man;^[3][5][4] Ciorănescu, MDA2 and Tiktin give the Slavonic source.^[3][5][4] DEX derives it from Bulgarian сиромах (siromah) and Serbo-Croatian siromah with a change of suffix, and MDA2 and the DLR also name the Serbo-Croatian word.^[6][5][2] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Slavic *siromaxъ, possibly through Serbo-Croatian.^[1] Șăineanu compared the Serbian word, which also means “orphan”.^[7]

Ciorănescu, after Cihac and the historian Giurescu, takes the Slavic word from Ancient Greek χειρομάχος (kheiromákhos).^[3] Romanian also borrowed the Slavic form unchanged as siromah.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Palia de la Orăștie (1581–1582), Exodus 23:3, where the law forbids favouring the cause of the siruman, the poor man.^[4][2] The sense there is “poor”.^[2] MDA2 cites the same passage as its first record.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is “poor, without means”, and in old texts also “of low social condition”, as when Șincai speaks of men born of sirimani parents.^[2] Old law codes use it for an orphan, sărman de tată “fatherless”, a sense now old and regional.^[4][6] MDA2 records further old senses, “bastard” and, in the form suruman, “humble, pious”.^[5]

In modern Romanian the word mostly expresses pity, “poor, wretched”, usually before the noun or in exclamations such as sărmanul!.^[6][7] Ciorănescu lists the old derivatives sărmănesc “of the poor” and sărmănie “poverty”.^[3]

Timeline

• 1581–1582 – siruman “poor man” in the Palia de la Orăștie, the first record.^[4][2]
• 1648 – suromană “poor (widow)” in the New Testament of 1648.^[2]
• 1651 – suruman in a psalter.^[2]
• 1688 – sărăman and sărimani in the Bucharest Bible.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. poor, lacking the means of life; often used as a noun.^[6][8]
2. (dated, regional) Orphaned.^[6][4]
3. Expressing pity: poor, wretched, unfortunate: Sărmanul câine aștepta la poartă.^[6][8]

Noun

1. A poor or wretched person.^[1][5]
2. (regional) An orphan.^[1][5]

Word family

• sărmănesc
• sărmănie

Related words

• siromah
• sărac

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sărman
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. sărman
4. ^ 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. sărman
5. ^ 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, 779
6. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 981
7. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 567
8. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional