seninătate

Forms

seninătate f (plural seninătăți)^[1] Variants are săninătate and the old seninetate and seninitate.^[2] Asachi wrote of „săninătatea ochilor tăi” “the serenity of your eyes”.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian senin + -ătate, from the adjective “clear, cloudless”.^{[4][2][3][5][6]} The adjective itself continues Latin serēnus.^[6]

Pușcariu took the noun directly from serēnitās, and Scriban and Șăineanu gave the same Latin source, Scriban comparing Italian serenità.^[6][7][8] Wiktionary gives both explanations.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and MDA2 date the first record to 1818, Budai-Deleanu's Romanian–German lexicon.^[5][2] There it is the clearness of the sky.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is the state of a cloudless sky, and by extension the clear vault of the sky itself: Eminescu's sun rises „în seninătatea adânc-albastră a cerului” “into the deep-blue serenity of the sky”.^[3][9] It is also used of the mind and face, calm free of torment and the expression that shows it;^[3][10] Costinescu in 1870 already gives both the serenity of the air and of the spirit, matching French sérénité.^[3][10] The phrase cu seninătate means calmly, and also with indifference.^[2]

Timeline

• 1818 – first record, in Budai-Deleanu's lexicon.^[5][2]
• 1862 – in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[3]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses it with French sérénité, of the sky and of the spirit.^[10]
• 1929 – Șăineanu defines the sky sense and the figurative “calm of the soul”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The clearness of a cloudless sky; limpidity.^[4][11]
2. (figurative) A calm expression of the face or eyes.^[4]
3. serenity, peace of mind: A primit vestea cu seninătate.^[4][2]

Related words

• senin
• Latin serēnitās

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 858
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. seninătate
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1005
5. ^ 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. seninătate
6. ^ 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. senin
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1188
8. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 584
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 98
10. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 504
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. seninătate