scurta

Forms

(present scurtez, third-person singular scurtează, past participle scurtat), 1st conjugation.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin excurtō (“to shorten”), a late and popular Latin verb.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is formed from ex- and curtō (“to shorten”) and occurs in the Lex Salica and the Lex Alamannorum.^[1] The REW lists the Romanian verb among the compounds of the Latin verb, beside the Old Italian scortare, French écourter and Occitan escortar.^[5] Tiktin compares the old Venetian escurtare and Albanian shkurtoj.^[3]

MDA2, DLR and NODEX take it instead as a verb made in Romanian from the adjective scurt.^[6][7][8] Ciorănescu notes that the initial /s/ of the adjective is usually explained from the verb, though it could also be expressive.^[4] The verb survives south of the Danube: Aromanian shcurtedz.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578), Psalm 88:46, where Candrea's glossary reads the perfect scurtat-ai “you have shortened”, rendering a Slavonic verb for “to diminish”.^[3][9] MDA2's first record is Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The core sense, “to make shorter”, was used early of time as well as of length: the Bible of 1688 says that had God not shortened those days, „De n-ar fi scurtat Dumnezeu zilele acelea”.^[3] A folk ballad uses it of beheading, „de capete-i scurtam” “I cut them short by a head”, and DEX keeps “to execute (by beheading)” as an obsolete sense.^[3][2] Cantemir used it figuratively of a tongue hindered by ignorance.^[7]

Later senses are “to take the shortest way, cut across”, “to make something last less” and “to speak briefly”.^[2] Popular and regional uses include “to cut (logs) into shorter pieces” and, in Transylvania, “to cause someone a loss”; an old mathematical sense was “to simplify (a fraction)”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – scurtat-ai in the Psaltirea Scheiană (Ps 88:46), the first record.^[3][9]
• 1581 – Coresi's Carte de învățătură, MDA2's first record.^[6]
• 1688 – scurtat in the Bucharest Bible (Mark 13:20).^[10][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To shorten, reduce the length or height of something.^[2][1]
2. (transitive, obsolete) To execute by beheading.^[2][6]
3. (transitive) To take the shortest way between two points, to cut across: a scurta drumul.^[2][8]
4. (transitive and reflexive) To make something last, or seem to last, less; to become shorter.^[2][7]
5. (intransitive and transitive) To speak briefly, cut a story short: a scurta vorba.^[2][8]
6. (popular) To cut logs or wood into shorter pieces.^[6]
7. (regional, Transylvania) To cause someone a loss.^[6]

Word family

• scurtare

Related words

• scurt
• prescurta
• scurtătură
• Aromanian shcurtedz
• Albanian shkurtoj

Usage notes

A scurta cuiva ghearele “to clip someone's claws” is to stop someone from doing harm, and a scurta cuiva limba is to stop someone from gossiping.^[2] MDA2 records a regional variant scurti and an old present scurt beside scurtez.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 996
3. ^ 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. scurtá
4. ^ a b 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
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ 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, 833
7. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. scurtá
8. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. scurta
9. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 377
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mk 13:20