semn

Forms

semn n (plural semne)^[1] Old and popular texts also have sămn: a text of 1831 says the militiamen will wear a red-and-white cord on the arm „spre sămn” “as a sign”.^[2][3] Besides semne, older texts have the plural semnuri.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin signum (“mark, sign”).^{[4][3][1][5][6]} It survives in Aromanian semnu and Megleno-Romanian semn.^[4][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian segno, Occitan senh, Old French seing, Catalan senya, Spanish seña and Portuguese senha;^[4] Nocentini notes that the Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese words continue the Latin plural signa, taken as a feminine singular.^[9]

The Latin noun is usually explained as a derivative of secō (“to cut”), “a mark cut” as a token.^[9][10] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *sekno- and Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”);^[11] Wiktionary also mentions *sekʷ- (“to follow”) as a possible root.^[1]

The verb semna “to mark” is either formed on the noun or continues signō.^[4][12] The same verb in the modern sense “to sign”, and semnal, semnătură, semnifica are 19th-century borrowings from French, reshaped after the noun.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the early 16th-century Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, which has semnul in Psalm 77:48.^[13][3] Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[14] In the Palia of 1581 God sets a mark on Cain, „puse Domnul pre Cain un semn”, so that no one would kill him.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From “mark, token” the word spread to every kind of sign: a gesture, a symptom, an omen, a sign of the zodiac, a written or mathematical symbol.^[4][15] Ciorănescu also records the older sense “miracle, wonder”.^[4] Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 glosses semn with the Slavonic for “sign”, and the later lexicons also use it for a sign of the zodiac (Slavonic зодия).^[16]

Concrete senses are a scar or spot on the skin, a white star on an animal's forehead and a target to shoot at;^[4][15] a boundary stone is a semn de hotar.^[15] The adverb pesemne “apparently”, literally “by the signs”, is a set phrase.^[15][17] In slang the word means a pawn or pledge.^[4][18]

Timeline

• early 16th century – semnul in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 77:48), the first record.^[13][3]
• 1570 – semn in Coresi's Psalter (Psalm 59:4).^[19]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[14]
• 1581 – the mark of Cain in the Palia.^[2]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[16]
• 1688 – used 39 times in the Bucharest Bible, among them the rainbow as the sign of the covenant.^[20]
• 1831 – the variant sămn in a text of 1831.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sign, indication: anything that shows or points to something; also an outward symptom of a state.^[15][4]
2. An omen: a sign believed to foretell good or bad luck; also each of the twelve signs of the zodiac.^[15]
3. A gesture or movement that conveys a thought or asks someone to do something: Mi-a făcut semn să tac.^[15]
4. A distinguishing mark put on an object or animal, or a patch of different colour on an animal's coat.^[15][3]
5. An object set up to mark a place or limit, a marker; a bookmark (semn de carte); a target.^[15]
6. A trace left by pressure or touch; a scar left on the skin.^[15][4]
7. A written or printed symbol: semne de punctuație “punctuation marks”, mathematical signs.^[15]
8. (slang) A pledge or pawn.^[4][18]

Word family

• semna
• însemna
• însemnat
• neînsemnat
• însemnare
• însemnătate
• însemnătură
• pesemne

Related words

• semnal
• semnătură
• semnifica
• consemna
• desemna
• sigiliu
• Latin signum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. semn
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 856
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. semn
5. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 143
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7908
7. ^ 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, p. 1, 155
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 262
9. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7905
13. ^ a b 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 77:48
14. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. semn
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1004
16. ^ 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. semn
17. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 252
18. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. semn
19. ^ 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 59:4
20. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 9:12