sfat

Forms

sfat n (plural sfaturi)^[1] Old texts have svat, sveat and sfeat (plural sfeature): the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki has „cu svatul tău năstăvitu-m-ai” “with thy counsel thou hast guided me”, and Coresi's psalter of 1577 „pun sfeature în sufletul mieu” “I take counsel in my soul”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic съвѣтъ (sŭvětŭ, “counsel, council”), as DER, DEX, MDA2 and the DLR give it.^{[4][5][2][3][1]} MDA2 and the DLR add the contracted Slavonic form свѣтъ (světŭ).^[2][3] Wiktionary takes sveat as the most conservative Romanian form, from which the others derive.^[1] The Slavonic word means “advice, instruction” and translates Ancient Greek βουλή (boulḗ) and συμβουλία (sumboulía).^[6]

The Slavonic noun is from Proto-Slavic *sъvětъ, formed from *sъ- and *větъ (“talk, agreement”), probably as a translation of Ancient Greek συμβούλιον (sumboúlion, “advice, counsel”).^[1] Compare Serbo-Croatian savet.^[1] The Russian совет (sovet), itself from Church Slavonic, gave Romanian soviet, a doublet of this word.^[7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1492, in a Slavonic–Romanian document.^[8] In Romanian texts it appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, as svatul “thy counsel”.^[2][3][9] Mardarie's lexicon of 1649 uses sfat to render Slavonic мысль and промыслъ “thought, plan”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The first senses are “counsel, advice” and “deliberation”: the Bible of 1688 has „Fericit omul carele n-au mers în sfatul necuraților” “blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly” (Psalm 1:1).^[8] In the old chronicles it also meant a plan or intention: Muste writes that a prince „le-au stricat sfatul” “spoiled their plan”.^[8][2]

From the deliberation came the body that deliberates, a council: the princely council of Wallachia and Moldavia, the sfatul domnesc, and in Bălcescu un svat de doisprezece boieri “a council of twelve boyars”.^[8][5] Scriban adds the building where it met, the town hall.^[11] Between 1950 and 1968 the local organs of state power in Romania were called sfaturi populare.^[5]

In popular speech sfat is also a friendly chat (a sta la sfat), and DER records a slang sense “slap”.^[4][8][5]

Timeline

• 1492 – a record in the Slavonic–Romanian documents.^[8]
• c. 1500–1520 – svatul and sfatul in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2][9]
• 1570 – sfeat in Coresi's psalter.^[12]
• 1649 – sfat in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• 1688 – sfatul necuraților in the Bucharest Bible.^[8][13]
• 1950–1968 – sfat popular, the name of the local organs of state power.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. advice, counsel: words said to someone to persuade them to act in a certain way: Ascultă sfatul mamei tale.^[5][2][1]
2. A council, an assembly met to deliberate or take decisions, in the past to help govern the country;^[5][4][1] sfat popular, the name of the local organs of state power between 1950 and 1968.^[5][4][1]
3. A consultation, deliberation;^[5] sfatul domnesc, the council of great boyars who governed with the prince of Wallachia or Moldavia.^[5]
4. (popular) A friendly conversation, a chat: Vecinele stau la sfat în fața porții.^[5][4][1]
5. (rare) A rumour, a piece of news.^[5]
6. (slang) A slap.^[4]

Word family

• sfătui
• sfătos
• sfătuitor
• sfetnic

Related words

• soviet
• Old Church Slavonic съвѣтъ (sŭvětŭ)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 869
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sfat
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. sfat
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1010
6. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
7. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
8. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. sfat
9. ^ 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 12:2
10. ^ 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. sfat
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1193
12. ^ 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 9:23
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ps 1:1