semna

Forms

semna (third-person singular present semnează, past participle semnat) 1st conjugation^[1] Old texts also have sămna, in Moxa and Dosoftei, and an old third person seamnă.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian semn + -a, the noun “sign”, which is inherited from signum.^[2][4][5] The old verb meant “to mark, to brand, to seal”; the modern sense “to sign one's name” is modelled on French signer, and Tiktin adds German zeichnen.^[6][2] DEX and the DILF take it straight from the French verb, adapted to the form of the noun,^[7][8] and Ciorănescu also counts the modern verb among the neologisms from French, with the French group ⟨ign⟩ reduced to ⟨emn⟩ after the noun.^[5] Șăineanu derived it from signō.^[9]

The verb is close to însemna “to mark; to mean”, which Ciorănescu derives from the noun or from Latin insignō, and which DEX takes from the same Latin verb or as formed from Romanian în- + semn.^[5][10] In the old language both verbs meant “to mark”, and Tiktin quotes the same passage of the Codicele Voronețean (Acts 25:27) under both.^[6][11] Wiktionary lists this verb as an alternative form of the longer one.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 4:7), where the reflexive means “to show itself”: Coresi has „Semnă-se spre noi lumina feațeei tale, Doamne!” “the light of thy countenance, Lord, has shown upon us”.^[6] The Palia de la Orăștie (1581–1582) has it as “to mark”, in the story of Aaron, and Coresi's Tetraevanghel says that the guards sealed the stone of the tomb: „semnară piatra cu pecețile”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The old senses were all forms of marking: to mark with a sign, to seal, to strike coins, to brand a person or an animal, and to mark out land.^[2][3] Old law punished thieves by marking them on the nose, a semna la nas, and Miron Costin and Ureche use the phrase.^[3] Tiktin also gives old senses “to mean”, “to announce” and “to prophesy”.^[6] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of 1649 and later gloss Old Church Slavonic знаменаю (znamenaju) with semnez.^[12]

The sense “to sign” is modern: Negulici's dictionary of 1848 defines it as “to put one's signature”, and iscăli is its older synonym.^[13][7] Damé still gives both the old “to seal” and the modern “to sign”.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – the reflexive “to show itself” in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[6]
• 1581–1582 – “to mark” in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[3][2]
• 1648 – “to mark (on the forehead)” in the New Testament of 1648.^[3]
• 1649 – semnez in Mardarie's lexicon.^[12]
• 1848 – “to put one's signature” in Negulici's dictionary.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sign: to put one's signature on a document to confirm it; reflexive, to sign one's name: A semnat contractul ieri. “He signed the contract yesterday.”^[7][2]
2. To sign a work as its author;^[2] (rare) to publish.^[2]
3. (obsolete) To mark, to seal, to brand; to mark out land.^[2][3]

Related words

• semn
• însemna
• semnătură
• Latin signum

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 856
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. semna
4. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. semna
5. ^ a b c 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
6. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. semna
7. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1004
8. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. semna
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 583
10. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 553
11. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. însemna
12. ^ 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. semnez
13. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. semnare
14. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. semna