seamă

Forms

seamă f (plural semi)^[1] A popular variant is samă: „împărțî toată avuțâia ce avea săracilor, samă de patru sute de litre” “she shared all the wealth she had among the poor, some four hundred pounds” (Dosoftei).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Hungarian szám (“number, count”).^{[5][4][3][6][1]} Tamás reviews the history of the question: Miklosich already took it as Hungarian, others thought of a Russian or even an Ancient Greek source, Șăineanu derived it from Latin exāmen, and Hasdeu suspected the Hungarian word, with a question mark; since Cihac the Hungarian origin has been generally accepted.^[6] The final ⟨-ă⟩ and the diphthong ⟨ea⟩ were explained by Byck and Graur.^[6]

The Hungarian word is recorded from the 14th century, perhaps from a place name of 1086.^[7][8] It is an early loan from a Chuvash-type Turkic language, from before the Hungarian conquest.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Scheiană, in the phrase cu samă in a verse that says Înmicșurat-ai elu cu nișchilu ceva … de îngeri “you made him a little less than the angels”.^[3][4] Tiktin also cites the title of a psalm in the same psalter.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The old senses follow Hungarian szám: “number, quantity” and “sum of money”, as in Ureche's câtă seamă de oaste “how great a number of troops”.^[2][5] The phrases o seamă de “a number of, some” and fără seamă “countless” keep this sense.^[4][2] From “count, account” came the senses of reckoning and judgement: a da seamă “to give account”, a lua seama and a băga de seamă “to pay attention, notice”, a-și da seama “to realise”, de bună seamă “surely” and mai cu seamă “especially”.^[10][5] In Moldavia the plural meant accounts, as in sămile Vistieriei “the accounts of the Treasury”.^[11]

Other senses are “care, keeping” (pe seama cuiva “in someone's charge”), “importance” (de seamă “important”), “kind, sort” and “age” (de-o seamă “of the same age”).^[10][5][4] Derivatives include semui “to compare” and sameș, the old name of a tax collector.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1573-1578 – cu samă in the Psaltirea Scheiană, the first record.^[4][3]
• 1577 – seamă in Coresi's psalter (Psalm 104:33).^[12]
• c. 1642-1647 – o samă de oști “a number of troops” in Ureche's chronicle.^[3]
• 1649 – samă in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1688 – o samă de cărți “a number of books” in the preface of the Bucharest Bible.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. In phrases of reckoning and judgement: de bună seamă “surely”;^[10][14] mai cu seamă “especially”;^[10][14] a-și da seama “to realise, understand”;^[10][14] a lua seama “to think over; to watch over; to notice”.^[10][14]
2. In phrases of interest and care: pe seama cuiva “for someone's benefit; in someone's charge”;^[10] a ține seama de “to take into account”.^[10]
3. importance, standing;^[10][5][1] de seamă “important, notable”.^[10][5][1]
4. Kind, sort;^[10][4] de-o seamă cu cineva “of the same kind or age as someone”.^[10][4]
5. O seamă de: a number of, some;^[4][15] peste seamă “beyond measure”.^[4][15]
6. Dare de seamă: a report on an activity.^[15]

Word family

• semui
• sameș
• sămeșie
• sămeșoaie

Related words

• sămădău
• Hungarian szám

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. seamă
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. seamă
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 836
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. seamă
6. ^ a b c Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 692
7. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu, p. s.v. szám
8. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 667
9. ^ Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, p. s.v. szám
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. 1, 997
11. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 580
12. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 104:33
13. ^ 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. samă
14. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 82
15. ^ 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. seamă