scump

Forms

scump m or n (feminine singular scumpă, masculine plural scumpi, feminine/neuter plural scumpe)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic скѫпъ (skǫpŭ, “miserly, avaricious”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Old Church Slavonic word is recorded in the sense “miserly, mean”,^[6] and comes from Proto-Slavic *skǫpъ.^[1][7] Its other descendants include Bulgarian скъп (skăp) “expensive; dear”, Serbo-Croatian skȗp and Polish skąpy “stingy”.^[2][7][8] The further origin of the Slavic word is unclear: Brückner, followed by Vasmer, connected it with the root of Russian щемить (ščemitʹ), and other comparisons, with Lithuanian and Greek words for “bent”, are doubtful.^[7][1]

The word is also found south of the Danube: Aromanian scumpu and Megleno-Romanian scǫmp.^[2][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1429, a century before the first Romanian texts.^[11] In Romanian books it appears in Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581.^[3] The early texts show both senses side by side: the New Testament of 1648 calls the Pharisees scumpi “covetous”, while the chronicles speak of daruri scumpe “costly gifts”.^[5][11]

Semantic evolution

In Slavonic the adjective meant “miserly”, and that sense lives on in old and regional Romanian.^[2][5][4] Romanian, like Bulgarian, also turned it to things: “costly, expensive”, then “precious” and, of people, “dear, beloved”.^[2][8] Șăineanu saw here a word ennobled in Romanian, as with drag “dear”.^[12]

The old language also used it for “splendid” and “meticulous, exact”: a document of 1814 asks for a scumpă cercetare “a careful examination” of the privileged people's deeds.^[11] The sense “stingy” survives in phrases: scump la vorbă “sparing with words, silent”, scump la râs “seldom laughing”, scump la vedere “rarely seen”.^[4][3][11] The Lexicon of Buda (1825) still gives both meanings, “dear, precious” and “avaricious”.^[13]

Timeline

• 1429 – the first record Tiktin gives.^[11]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[3]
• 1648 – scumpi “covetous” in the New Testament of 1648.^[5]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – scumpe and scumpă “precious” in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]
• 1814 – scumpă cercetare “a careful examination”.^[11]
• 1825 – the Lexicon of Buda gives “dear” and “avaricious”.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. expensive, costly; of prices, high; of people, asking high prices.^[4][3]
2. valuable, precious: pietre scumpe “precious stones”.^[4][16]
3. Of people and other beings, very dear, beloved.^[4][17]
4. (dated, popular) stingy, miserly; in phrases, sparing: scump la vorbă “taciturn”, scump la râs “seldom laughing”.^[4][3]

Adverb

1. At a high price: a vinde scump “to sell dear”.^[3][16]

Word family

• scumpătate
• scumpete
• scumpi
• scumpeală

Related words

• Aromanian scumpu

Usage notes

Used as a noun, scumpul is “the miser”, as in the proverb Leneșul mai mult aleargă, scumpul mai mult păgubește “The lazy man runs more, the miser loses more”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. scump
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 831
4. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 995
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. scump
6. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
7. ^ a b c Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
8. ^ a b Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 6, 817
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. scump
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 578
13. ^ 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. 625
14. ^ 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. scump
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Proverbs 8:11
16. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1179
17. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. scump