simți

Forms

simți (present simt, third person simte, past participle simțit, subjunctive să simtă, dated să simță), 4th conjugation^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sentiō (“to feel, perceive”).^[3][4][1] The Latin verb comes from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”).^[1] De Vaan relates it to Lithuanian sintėti (“to think”) and to Germanic and Celtic words for “to go” and “road”.^[5]

The verb survives in Aromanian simtu and Megleno-Romanian sint.^[3][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian sentire, French sentir, Catalan sentir, Spanish sentir and Portuguese sentir.^[3][8]

Ciorănescu explains the first-person variant „simț” by analogy with the second person.^[3] The noun simț “sense” is a deverbal noun modelled on Latin sensus, and simțământ “feeling” was coined after French sentiment.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and Tiktin give the Psaltirea Scheiană, of about 1573–1578, as the first record (Psalm 34:15).^[4][9] The sense was “to feel, perceive”.^[9][4]

Semantic evolution

Besides perceiving with the senses, old texts used a simți de for learning of someone's presence: Miron Costin writes that Ștefan Vodă „au simțit de oastea căzăcească” “learned of the Cossack army” near the Prut.^[9] The sense “to become aware, to notice” is still usual, and of animals the verb means “to scent”: ca să nu-l simță câinii “so that the dogs would not scent him”.^[9][2] The reflexive a se simți “to feel (well, ill, guilty)” describes one's own state.^[9][2] In colloquial speech the verb can mean “to smell”, and in familiar speech “to hurt”.^[4]

Prefixed verbs were made on French models: consimți from consentir, presimți after pressentir and resimți after ressentir.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[4][9]
• 1649 – Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon uses simți for Slavonic “to perceive”.^[10]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible (Mark 5:29).^[11]
• 1862 – Pontbriant glosses it with French sentir, ressentir and éprouver.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To feel, to perceive through the senses: Simt frigul.^[2][4]
2. (reflexive) To feel (in a given physical state): Mă simt obosit.^[2][1]
3. (transitive) To notice, to become aware of someone's presence or action; of animals: to scent.^[2][4]
4. (transitive) To sense, to realize by intuition: a simți primejdia;^[2][13] (reflexive) to be aware of a quality or state of one's own: a se simți în stare “to feel up to it”.^[2][13]
5. (reflexive) To show good manners and tact.^[2]
6. (transitive) To experience a feeling or emotion;^[2][13] a simți lipsa cuiva “to miss someone”.^[2][13]

Word family

• simț
• simțitor
• nesimțire
• nesimțit
• nesimțitor
• consimți
• presimți
• simțământ
• simțire

Related words

• resimți
• sentiment
• Aromanian simtu
• Latin sentiō

Usage notes

Old and regional present forms include simț and simțesc.^[4][3] A regional plural noun Simți, the name of the feast of the Forty Martyrs, is a separate word.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1020
3. ^ 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. simți
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 893
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 948
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 266
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7824
9. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. simți
10. ^ 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. simți
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Marco 5:29
12. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 678
13. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. simți
14. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. s.v. simți