sete

Forms

sete f (uncountable)^[1] Old texts write seate: „Doamne, dă-mi acea apă, să nu-mi fie seate” “Lord, give me that water, that I thirst not” (Coresi).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sitis (“thirst”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} De Vaan derives the Latin word from Proto-Indo-European *dʰgʷʰítis (“destruction, perishing”): the initial cluster was reordered in the prehistory of Italic and ended as Latin ⟨s⟩.^[7][1] Its cognates are Ancient Greek φθίνω (phthínō, “to waste away”) and Sanskrit क्षिति (kṣíti, “perishing, downfall”).^[7][1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian seati, Megleno-Romanian sęti and Istro-Romanian sęte.^[3][1][8] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian sait, Italian sete, Sardinian sidis, French soif, Occitan set, Catalan set, Spanish sed and Portuguese sede.^[3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is setea in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, at Psalm 103:12.^[10] MDA2 dates the word to the Psaltirea Scheiană (about 1573–1578), „în setea mea adăpară-mă cu oțet” “in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink”.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Beside the bodily thirst, the word has meant a burning desire since the old texts: setea de aur “the thirst for gold”, setea de răzbunare “the thirst for revenge”.^[4][11][12] The phrase cu sete “eagerly” widened to “with force, violently”, as in striking a blow cu sete.^[4][13] In the old language MDA2 also records the sense “drought”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – setea in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[10]
• c. 1573-1578 – sete in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[5][13]
• 1581 – seate in Coresi.^[2]
• 1692 – a text of the time speaks of feeling neither hunger nor thirst nor cold.^[2]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda has mi-e sete “I am thirsty”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. thirst: the need to drink caused by the loss of water from the body.^[4][1]
2. (figurative) A burning desire, a craving.^[4]
3. cu sete: eagerly, with passion; by extension, with force, violently.^[4][13]
4. (obsolete) drought.^[5]

Word family

• seteciune
• setos
• setilă
• înseta
• însetat

Related words

• Aromanian seati
• Latin sitis

Usage notes

Thirst is expressed with the dative: mi-e sete “I am thirsty”, literally “to me is thirst”;^[13][15] a muri de sete means “to die of thirst”.^[13][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. sete
3. ^ 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. sete
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1009
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 867
6. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 143
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula, p. s.v. sęte
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7961
10. ^ 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 103:12
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1192
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 106
13. ^ 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. sete
14. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 636
15. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. sete