scurt

Forms

scurt m or n (feminine singular scurtă, masculine plural scurți, feminine/neuter plural scurte)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *excurtus, a by-form of curtus (“short; cut off”), which some give as the direct source.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The initial /s/ is usually explained from the verb Vulgar Latin *excurtō (Romanian scurta); Ciorănescu adds that it may be expressive, at least in Romanian.^[2][4][1][6] The Latin adjective comes from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kr̥tós (“short”), from *(s)ker- (“to cut”).^[1]

It survives in two other branches: Aromanian scurtu and Istro-Romanian scurt.^[2][7][8] Ciorănescu thinks the Aromanian form depends on Albanian, and he takes an Albanian place name, Skortull, from Romanian.^[2] The Romance cognates are Italian corto or scorto, Occitan cort, French court, Catalan curt, Spanish corto and Portuguese curto, besides Albanian shkurt.^[2][4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1449, in a Slavonic charter.^[6] In the 17th century the word glosses Slavonic краткий “short” in Mardarie's lexicon of 1649.^[9] MDA2's first record is the Latin–Romanian glossary of Caransebeș, the Anonymus Caransebesiensis (c. 1650–1700).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word applies to length and to time: a short object, distance or body, and a short while.^[10][3] Of a person it means short in stature.^[10][6] Figurative uses include pe scurt “in short”, scurt la vorbă “of few words” and a lua pe cineva din scurt “to keep someone on a short rein”.^[6][10] As an adverb it means “abruptly” or “tightly”, and the feminine scurtă is a short padded coat.^[10]

The verb scurta “to shorten” continues Vulgar Latin *excurtō for Ciorănescu, and prescurta “to abbreviate” was formed after German verkürzen.^[2]

Timeline

• 1449 – a Slavonic charter, the first record.^[6]
• 1649 – scurt glosses Slavonic “short” in Mardarie's lexicon.^[9]
• c. 1650–1700 – the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1698 – pre scurt “in short” in a menaion.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. short in length: un drum scurt “a short road”;^[10][1] unde scurte “short wave”.^[10][1]
2. Of body parts: short; of beings: small in stature, scund.^[10]
3. Short in time, brief: o pauză scurtă “a short break”.^[10][1]

Adverb

1. abruptly: se opri scurt “he stopped short”.^[10]
2. At a short distance; tightly.^[10]

Noun

1. (feminine, scurtă) A thick, padded or fur-lined jacket reaching above the knees.^[10]

Word family

• scurta
• scurtare
• scurtătură
• scurtime
• scurteică
• prescurta

Related words

• Aromanian scurtu
• Latin curtus

Usage notes

Infinitivul scurt “the short infinitive” is the Romanian infinitive ending in the conjugation vowel (a cânta).^[10]

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 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. scurt
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 832
4. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2421
5. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. scurt
6. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. scurt
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 936
8. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
9. ^ 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. scurt
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 996