simplu

Forms

simplu m or n (feminine singular simplă, masculine plural simpli, feminine/neuter plural simple)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French simple, first recorded in 1814.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The French word is from Latin simplex (“made of one element; plain, artless”), literally “folded once”, a compound of a root of unity and the root of plectō (“to plait”).^[6] Graur sets the Romanian word in the same Latin family as dublu and triplu, which came by the same French route.^[7]

Some dictionaries name Latin beside French: Negulici's glossary of 1848 and Pontbriant's dictionary of 1862 give the Latin adjective as the source, and Marcu and Maneca compare both.^[8][9][10] Scriban derives the French word from Latin simplus and the adjective in ⟨-plex⟩, and compares duplu.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1814, with the sense “simple, plain”.^[2] MDA2 dates the word to 1818, in Naum Petrovici's Romanian version of Villaume's handbook of pedagogy and teaching method.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first sense in DLR is the learned one, “made of a single element, not compound”: an anthropology text counts oxygen and hydrogen among the simple parts of bodies, and a text of 1844 speaks of simple and compound medicines.^[3] Negulici's glossary of neologisms already gives most of the later senses in 1848: not compound, easy to do or understand, without ornament, without malice, credulous and easily deceived, without luxury.^[8] Pontbriant in 1862 adds “candid, naive” and the phrase mâncare simplă “a frugal meal”.^[9]

Of people the word came to mean both “sincere, unaffected” and “uneducated”, and in the pejorative “boorish”.^[5] Placed before a noun it means “mere, nothing more than”, as in simplu soldat “private soldier” and simplu cetățean “ordinary citizen”.^[12][5] In sport it names a match between two single players, the singles of tennis.^[10][13]

Timeline

• 1814 – first record, “simple, plain”.^[2]
• 1818 – in Naum Petrovici's translation of Villaume's pedagogy.^[4]
• 1844 – doctoriile simple și compuse “simple and compound medicines”.^[3]
• 1848 – in Negulici's glossary of neologisms, with the Latin adjective as its source.^[8]
• 1862 – Pontbriant gives “simple; candid, credulous; naive”.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. simple: made of one element or of a few elements of the same kind; not compound, not mixed;^[5][4] timp simplu a verb tense formed without an auxiliary, perfect simplu the simple past.^[5][4]
2. Not complicated; easy to do, understand or solve; free of artifice.^[5]
3. Single: on one level, happening once; in sport, of a match between two individual opponents (also as a noun, singles).^[5][10]
4. plain, without ornament, modest; cheap or of poor quality.^[5]
5. Of people and their manner: unaffected, sincere; also uneducated, and (pejorative) boorish.^[5]
6. Before a noun: mere, nothing more than;^[5] simplu muritor an ordinary mortal;^[5] simplu ca bună ziua (colloquial) as easy as can be.^[5]

Word family

• simplitate

Related words

• dublu
• triplu

Usage notes

DLR records an old variant sâmplu, and MDA2 an old semplu.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. simplu
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. simplu
4. ^ 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, 892
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. 1019
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
8. ^ a b c Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. simplu
9. ^ a b c Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 678
10. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. simplu
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1202
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 592
13. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. simplu