singur

Forms

singur m or n (feminine singular singură, masculine plural singuri, feminine/neuter plural singure)^[1] Old texts also have sângur: the New Testament of 1648 has „să sui în munte sângur” “he went up the mountain alone”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin singulus (“one each, single, alone”).^[4][3][1][5] It survives in Aromanian singur and Megleno-Romanian singur.^[4][6] Its Romance relatives are few and scattered: Dalmatian sanglo (“alone”), Campidanese singra (“childless woman”), Old French sangle, Occitan sengles, Catalan sengles, and Spanish sendos and Portuguese sendos “one each”.^[4][5] The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[1]

Ciorănescu mentions Meyer's suggestion that Modern Greek σέγγρα (séngra, “spinster”) may come from the Romanian word.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1228, from Mihăilă's dictionary of early Romanian.^[7] MDA2 gives the Codicele Voronețean (1563–1583).^[3] The sense is “alone”: Coresi's homilies (1581) speak of someone acting not among many but when alone, ce cînde singur.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Beside “alone, unaccompanied”, the word means “only, sole” before a noun (singurul fiu), “by oneself, without help” and “oneself”; used as an adverb it means “only”.^[4][8] The adverb is common in Muntenia: singur noi mai eram acolo “only we were still there”.^[9]

Around Dorohoi in the north singur serves as a polite pronoun, “you”.^[10] Graur first explained it as a calque of Hungarian maga, which means both “oneself” and “you”, and later accepted Traian Costa's view that Russian сам is the model.^[10][11] Derivatives include singurătate “loneliness”, singuratic “solitary” and the diminutive singurel in singur-singurel “all alone”.^[4][7]

Timeline

• c. 1228 – the first record, cited from Mihăilă's dictionary.^[7]
• c. 1563–1583 – the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]
• 1581 – singur in Coresi's homilies.^[2]
• 1648 – the variant sângur in the New Testament.^[2]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary renders it with Latin solus.^[12]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda: Latin solus, singulus, Hungarian egyedül, German allein.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. alone, unaccompanied; solitary, lonely: A rămas singur după plecarea copiilor.^[8][1]
2. By oneself, without help or prompting; of itself: Ușa s-a închis singură.^[8]
3. (before the noun) only, sole; in negative sentences, not a single: N-a spus un singur cuvânt.^[8][1]
4. Oneself, in person: Mă ocup eu singur de asta.^[8]
5. single, not in a relationship.^[1]

Adverb

1. Only, just: Singur el a venit.^[8][9]

Word family

• singurătate
• singuratic
• singurel
• însingura

Related words

• Latin singulus

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. singur
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 898
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. singur
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7945
6. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 266
7. ^ 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. singur
8. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1022
9. ^ a b Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. 386
10. ^ a b Graur, Alexandru (1963), Etimologii romînești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. singur
11. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1975), Alte etimologii românești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. singur
12. ^ 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. 445
13. ^ 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. 645