săruta

Forms

a săruta (third-person singular present sărută, past participle sărutat, third-person subjunctive sărute) 1st conjugation^[1] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the word is written сэрута.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin salūtō (“to greet”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} Ciorănescu cites Pușcariu's EWRS (no. 1528), the REW, Șăineanu's semasiology and Densusianu for this etymology.^[2] DÉRom reconstructs the verb for Proto-Romance with the sense “to greet”, since every Romance branch except Dalmatian continues it.^[6]

South of the Danube, Megleno-Romanian sărutari means “to kiss”.^[6] Ciorănescu and the REW also list Aromanian sărut, but DÉRom notes that the Aromanian verb, known only from Wild's dialect atlas, is not confirmed by the standard dictionaries of that language.^[2][5][6] The Romance cognates include Italian salutare, Sardinian saludare, French saluer, Occitan saludar, Catalan saludar, Spanish saludar and Portuguese saudar.^[6] The Romanian saluta is a later borrowing of the same Latin verb.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century: sărutară-se “they kissed each other”.^[6] Coresi's Psalter has the same verse: „dreptate și pace sărutară-se” “righteousness and peace kissed each other” (Psalm 84:11).^[7] MDA2 gives the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583) as its first record, in the sense “to greet”: „Săruta-vă-voru ceia ce sântu în Vavilonu” “those who are in Babylon will greet you” (1 Peter 5:13).^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The old texts use the verb both for greeting and for kissing: Coresi's Gospel has „Și nimea pre cale să sărutați” “and greet no one on the way” (Luke 10:4) beside „Cela ce voiu săruta, acela iaste” “the one I shall kiss is he” (Matthew 26:48).^[7] In modern Romanian the sense “to kiss” has driven out “to greet”, which is now expressed by the loanword saluta.^[6] DÉRom explains the shift as a metonymy from the old custom of greeting with a kiss, citing Mihăescu and Șăineanu;^[6] Old Spanish and Megleno-Romanian show the same sense.^[6]

The old greeting survives in formulas: sărut mâna “I kiss your hand”, said on meeting, on leaving or in thanks to women and older people, and the obsolete sărutăm dreapta, addressed to priests, princes and boyars.^[4][3] Ciorănescu notes that the verb is in general use except in the Banat.^[2]

Timeline

• early 16th century – sărutară-se “they kissed each other” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[6]
• c. 1563–1583 – săruta “to greet” in the Codicele Voronețean (1 Peter 5:13).^[3][7]
• 1649 – sărut glosses Slavonic lobzaju “I kiss” in Mardarie's lexicon.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reciprocal) To kiss: to touch with the lips as a sign of love, respect, friendship or humility.^[4][3][1]
2. (in formulas) Sărut mâna “I kiss your hand”, a polite greeting or thanks to a woman or an older person;^[4][3] (obsolete) sărutăm dreapta, a greeting to priests and princes.^[4][3]
3. (obsolete) To greet; to welcome.^[3][1]

Word family

• sărut
• sărutare

Related words

• saluta
• Latin salūtō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. săruta
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, 779
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 981
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
7. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. săruta
8. ^ 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. sărut