seu

Forms

seu n (plural seuri)^[1] The regional pronunciation său is old: an account of 1792 lists „luminări de său” “tallow candles”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sēbum (“tallow, suet”), a word inherited across Romance.^{[4][3][5][6][7][1]} It survives in all four branches: Aromanian seu, Megleno-Romanian seu and Istro-Romanian sew.^[4][8][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian sego, Occitan seu, Catalan seu, Old French siu (whence French suif), Spanish sebo and Portuguese sebo.^[4][10]

De Vaan finds no etymology for the Latin word: it is attested too early to be a loan from Germanic, and the root *seib- (“to drip”) proposed for it and for the Germanic word for soap is doubtful.^[11] Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Indo-European *seyb- (“to pour out”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DLR's earliest quotations are from about 1580, a text in Hasdeu's Cuvente den bătrâni that has lead, tallow and pitch boiled for seven days; the next is the Palia de la Orăștie of 1581–1582, where seul “the fat” of the ram is to be taken.^[2][6] The sense is animal fat.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Tallow was a trade good and the stuff of candles, and lumânare de seu “tallow candle” is a common phrase from the 18th century on.^[2][6] Figuratively the word means “wealth”, with idioms such as a avea seu la rărunchi “to have fat on the kidneys”, to be well off, a face seu “to grow rich” and a trăi din seul său “to live on one's own savings”.^[5][3][6] A pune seu means to put on weight.^[5]

Ciorănescu derives the adjective soios “greasy, dirty” from the word, for an expected *seuios, with soi “grime” as a back-formation from it;^[4] Tiktin linked soi with zoaie instead.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1580 – seu with lead and pitch in a text of Hasdeu's Cuvente den bătrâni.^[2]
• 1581-1582 – seul “the fat” of the ram in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[2][6]
• 1688 – seu thirteen times in the Bucharest Bible, first in Leviticus 4:31.^[12]
• 1741-1742 – tallow to be sold for the candles of a court.^[2]
• 1792 – „luminări de său” “tallow candles” in a document.^[2]
• 1801 – Klein glosses séu as Latin sebum.^[13]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda gives seuu with Latin, Hungarian and German equivalents.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. tallow, suet: the fat of cattle, sheep and horses, used in industry and, rarely, in food.^[5][3][1]
2. Fat laid down on the human body.^[3]
3. (figurative) wealth, well-being: Și-a făcut seu din negoț.^[5][3]

Word family

• soios

Related words

• Aromanian seu
• Latin sēbum

Usage notes

In the 19th-century Latinist spelling seu also wrote the conjunction sau “or” and the possessive său “his”: Costinescu and Antonescu list both beside the noun.^[15][16][17] The noun's plural seuri means kinds of tallow.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. seu
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 867
4. ^ a b c d e 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. seu
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1010
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. seu
7. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 253
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 263
9. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 337
10. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. sego
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. sēbum
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Preoția 4:31
13. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 441
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. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 509
16. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 285
17. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 671